


(. . '^^^-^ 




^yj:xmM^. 



HEROES OF 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 




James Hills' Brave Charge 

Hills had ordered out his two guns for action, but the enemy were upon them before 
they could be fired. But Hills, in order to check the attack and to give his men time, 
charged the Sepoys single handed and cut down the leading men. 



HEROES OF 
THE INDIAN MUTINY 

STORIES OF HEROIC DEEDS, INTREPIDITY, AND 

DETERMINATION IN THE FACE OF FEARFUL 

ODDS DURING THE GREAT MUTINY 



BY 



EDWARD GILLIAT, M.A. (Oxon.) 

SOMETIME MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL 
AUTHOR OF "forest OUTLAWS," " HEROES OF MODERN CRUSADES,' 

6t=C. ^'C. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

LONDON : SEELEY, SERVICE &^ CO. LD. 
1914 



.G-5 



*^ .f-. ' 



IN MEMORY OF 
A GOOD WIFE & HONEST CRITIC 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

Before the Mutiny: Mutterings of the Storm 



PAGE 



How we won India— Dupleix, Clive, and Coote— Wellesley— 
Burma— Afghans and Sikhs — The Punjab— Causes of 

Mutiny — The Clan in the regiment — Sepoy superstition 

The greased cartridge— A Hindoo warning— Chupatties — 
Meerut — The Mutiny in outline . . . .17 

CHAPTER II 

Sir Thomas Seaton, K.C.B. : A Soldier of the 

Company 

To Calcutta at sixteen— Thieves on the road— Thirst in the 
desert— Quetta—Jellalabad— Earthquake— Locusts— Seal- 
kote — Umballa — Ordered to command Mutineers — A 
touch and go— The kind word wins — Ride to Delhi— 
Wounded— The Convoy— Keeping Rebels at bay— The 
Queen does not forget him . . . . .28 

CHAPTER III 

Sir Herbert B. Edwardes, K.C.B., K. C.S.I. : 
The Christian Knight 

Son of a Rector— King's College— To Calcutta—Dinapur- 
Writes for Delhi Gasetle—l^dihoxe and Sir Henry Lawrence 
—Bunnu—Multan— Marries— Peshawur—Pohcy of trust 
—Afghan Treaty— Nicholson— The Revolt— Disarming- 
Wild Recruits— Agra saved— Home— Dies 1868 . . 54 

CHAPTER IV 
HoDSON OF Hodson's Horse : The Prince of Scouts 

A Rector's Son— Rugby— Trinity, Cambridge— Guernsey— 
Cadet— The Sikh War— Simla and Sir H. Lawrence— 
Cashmere— The Guides— Marries— Slanders— Tried and 

11 



CONTENTS 



acquitted— Irregular Horse— The Ride to Meerut— A pretty 
swordsman— Guides at Delhi— Wounded— Hodson seizes 
the King and kills the Princes— With Sir CoHn at Lucknow 
—Shot in the Begum's Palace— Friends and foes discuss 
him . . . . • • • '72 

CHAPTER V 

General Sir Henry D. Daly, G.C.B., CLE. ; 
The Leader of the Guides 

Travels through Egypt — Languages — Adjutant— Karachi- 
Capture of Multan— Commands Irregular Horse — Sir Colin 
and Mansfield— The Guides— A Swift March to Delhi- 
Wounded at Delhi— Saved by an Indian Noble— Brasyer's 
Heroism— A surprise— The Siege-train — Simla — Tends 
Hodson at Lucknow— With Hope Grant clearing Oudh- 
Charge of Ghazis— In Central India— Daly College . 99 

CHAPTER VI 

Field-Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, V.C, 
The Young Gunner 

Eton and Addiscombe — Cairo— Joins his father at Peshawur — 
A Flogging and a Reprieve — Meets Nicholson — The Fatal 
Telegram — The Meerut Outbreak— A Massacre— Scene at 
the Main-guard — Willoughby blows up the Magazine — 
Sepoys disarmed in the Punjab— A Hero unrecognised . 125 

CHAPTER VII 
Lord Roberts and Delhi : In the Great Siege 

Battle of Hindun— Tombs and Hills, the heroes of July- 
Roberts wounded — Training the Batteries—The Assault — 
Finds Nicholson wounded — A Ride to Aligarh— The Fakir 
and the letter— Surprise at Agra — Cawnpur and Lucknow . 151 

CHAPTER VIII 
John Nicholson : The Hero of the Punjab 

Nicholson born at Lisburn — Cadet — Ghuzni — Prisoners — 
Surprise meetings — Ride to Attock — Bunnu — Stories of 
the wild — Rides after Rebels — A lesson in politeness — On 
the Ridge — The last Assault — Brothers meet in hospital . 179 

12 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX 

General Sir A. Taylor, G.C.B. : The Man who 
TOOK Delhi 



PAGE 



Born in Dublin— School at Berne— Addiscombe— The Trunk 
Road-^6ent to Delhi — Narrow escapes — Nicholson helps 
to examine Sites — House-to-house fighting— Adventures 
with Hodson— Lucknow— The Road— Cooper's Hill . 197 

CHAPTER X 

Sir Henry and John Lord Lawrence : The Great 
Twin Brethren 

Henry: Irish- Scot— Burma — Indian Survey— Resident at Nepal 
— President of Punjab — Lucknow — Prepares for a Siege — 
Trusts Natives — Colonel Inglis — Chinhut — Fatal shell. 
John : Foyle College— Haileybury — Delhi— The new Sahib 
— Marries — A merry Meeting — Punjab — Saves Delhi and 
risks the Punjab . . . . • -213 

CHAPTER XI 

Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wylie Norman : 
The Organiser of Victory 

Part Irish — Dinapur — The Munshi — Lahore and Sir Colin — 
Santal War — General Anson— Death of Colonel Chester 
— A Female Sepoy — Lost — Kavanagh and Sir Colin — Peel's 
bullocks— The Idol-smasher— Cawnpur — Lucknow — The 
last gasp ....... 229 

CHAPTER XII 

The Heroes of Cawnpur 

The Lines — Nana and Azimoolah — General Wheeler and Mrs. 
Fraser — The first day of terror — Dame Widdowson — The 
Captain of the Well— Brave ladies— Bolton leaps the wall 
— A woman brings terms — One quiet night — Tantia Topee 
arranges all— The Ravine— Colonel Ewart and wife cut 
(jo^vn — Thel. bugle sounds for massacre— Vibart's boat 
escapes— Thomson's swim— Only four escape alive . 255 

13 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIII 

Havelock and Outram : The Relievers of Lucknow 

PAGE 

The race to save Cawnpur — Battles — Maude's guns — The 
Nana awaits Havelock — The House of Massacre — Sir 
Colin's praise — Outram's chivalry — Havelock's son a hero 
— Feelings of the Lucknow garrison — Kavanagh in disguise 
gets through to Sir Colin with plans — Death of Havelock . 285 

CHAPTER XIV 
Sir Colin Campbell : The Hero of the Queen 

Ensign — To Portugal — A lesson in war — Retreat to Corunna — 
Walcheren fever — San Sebastian — West Indies — Siege of 
Antwerp — China — A Sick Ship — Lahore and the Sikhs — 
A narrow escape — Too cautious — The Crimea — Commands 
the Highland Brigade — Alma — Balaclava — Home to resign 
— Cheered by the Queen's favour .... 301 

CHAPTER XV 
Lord Clyde : The Saviour of Lucknow 

Chief Command in India — Brasyer and Neill save Allahabad — 
Taylor saves his Province — Eyre saves Arah — Sir Colin's 
escape on the road — Hope Grant at Buntera — Fights for 
Lucknow — The leaders meet — Rescue of women — Wind- 
ham's plight at Cawnpur — A long chase and a comic 
ending— The Queen's gracious letter — Home again . 318 

CHAPTER XVI 
Sir Hugh Rose and Jhansi : The Avenger of Cawnpur 

Lord Strathnairn — Born in Berlin — Service in Ireland — Malta 
— Syria — Rescues native women — Secretary of Embassy 
at Constantinople — Alma and Inkerman — Bombay — The 
Rani of Jhansi — The Massacre — Diary of a young Sapper 
— A disarming — Relief of Sagar — Lieutenant Dick's arrest 
— Jhansi bombarded — Tantia Topee attacks — The escalade 
— Tantia pursued and hanged — Strathnairn Commander- 
in-Chief in India — Dies in Paris .... 332 



14 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



James Hills' Brave Charge .... Frontispiece 



~ FACING PAGE 

MUNGUL PaNDY . . . . . . .36 



Blowing up the Kashmir Gate . . . .86 

Lieutenant Roberts finding General Nicholson 

Wounded . . . . . . .168 

HoDSON and his Boar Spear. . . . . 208 

The Massacre of Cawnpur ..... 278 

Outram and the Tiger ..... 290 

The Storming of Jhansi ..... 342 



15 



1 



HEROES OF THE INDIAN 
MUTINY 

CHAPTER I 

BEFORE THE MUTINY: MUTTERINGS OF 
THE STORM 

BEFORE we begin to record some of the brave or 
patient deeds performed by heroes of the Indian 
Mutiny, it will make matters more clear if we dwell 
briefly on the history of our Indian Empire, and on the 
causes which led to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. 

Soon after V^asco da Gama had found the shores of 
Hindostan on May 17, 1498, Indian goods and curios 
began to enter Europe through the agency of the Portuguese 
and Venetians : but it was not until September 1599 that 
the merchants of London formed a trading association, and 
received a charter, which gave them exclusive trade with 
the countries east of the Cape of Good Hope. 

The first vessels returned laden with cargoes of pepper, 
cloves and cinnamon, on which enormous profits were made, 
to the natural jealousy of the Portuguese and Dutch, the 
prior traders in that region. 

In 1612, Captain Best was attacked by a strong 
Portuguese fleet, and beat off" his assailants with great 
gallantry in the roadstead of Surat. He landed his cargo 
and obtained a commercial treaty from the Mogul emperor : 
in 1634, the Great Mogul gave the British a firman, 
B 17 



BEFORE THE MUTINY 

enabling them to trade in Bengal : this year the Portuguese 
retired from that province, and left the trade to their rivals. 

In 1639, Fort St. George, or Madras, our earliest 
possession in India, was founded by Francis Day, and in 
1661 Bombay was given to the British Crown as part of 
the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, and was shortly 
afterwards transferred by King Charles ii. to the East 
India Company. 

After fighting for this trade with the Portuguese and 
Dutch, we found ourselves in 1744 at war with the French, 
who also had established themselves in Pondi cherry : 
Dupleix, the French governor, had the ambition of found- 
ing a French Empire in India, but the British, under Clive 
and Sir Eyre Coote, succeeded in expelling the French in 
1760. We cannot follow the details of the many wars 
which followed the attempt to push trade into the interior 
of India. 

The Mahrattas, who had been used to raid and ravage 
up to the walls of Calcutta, had to be quelled : Oude was 
reduced by Major Munro in 1764 : Hyder Ali of Mysore 
gave trouble in the Carnatic and ravaged the country up 
to Madras, but was defeated by Coote. 

A second Mysore War gave half the dominions of Tippoo, 
Hyder's son, to the British : Tippoo himself was finally 
defeated and killed at Seringapatam in 1799. In the 
second Mahratta War, Sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Lake 
won great victories, and Orissa fell under our rule. The 
Gurkhas were defeated in 1814, and Nepaul sued for peace. 

In 1823 the first Burmese War took place, and we lost 
many men from disease. 

In 18^, Lord William Bentinck became Governor- 
General of India, and made many social reforms : some of 
these are said to have led to the Mutiny, as they touched 
on the religion of the natives. He abolished suttee, or the 
burning of widows upon the bier of their husbands : he put 
down thugs, or the hereditary assassins of India : he forbade 
the flogging of native soldiers by English officers, of which 

18 



MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM 

we will write more anon. Under Lord Auckland the 
disastrous Afghan War took place and at the same time Sir 
Charles Napier conquered the Ameers of Scinde : in 1845, 
Sir Hugh Gough defeated in four battles the brave fight- 
ing race of the Sikhs, and a British Resident was sent to 
the Punjab. Under Lord Dalhousie fresh territory was 
annexed in the Punjab, Burma, Nagpore and Oude : at 
the end of the second Sikh War the Punjab became a 
British Province, and under John Lawrence was so prosperous 
and contented that it effected much toward stemming the 
tide of mutiny. In 1852 the second Burmese War gave 
Britain the valley of the Irrawaddy, and since then that pro- 
vince has advanced amazingly in all material development. 

This brief resume serves to show us how to the Indian 
mind war after war, and annexation after defeat, must have 
excited patriotic feelings and alarmed the ruling powers of 
native states and the high-caste priesthood with regard to 
what might follow. But the causes of the Mutiny were so 
numerous that it is worth while to unravel them in some detail. 

One influence which weighed heavily with the super- 
stitious native was caused by a rumour circulating through 
all the bazaars that fate limited the English rule in India 
to one hundred years from the date of Clive's great victory 
at Plassey (1757). The sepoy troops, too, had learnt on 
many a battlefield to win great victories, and thought the 
time had come for them to recognise their own valour and 
secure a great destiny. Being most of them the younger 
sons of zemindars, or small landholders, the sepoys were full 
of pride and ambition : they believed that the treasures of 
India belonged by right to them ; they were looking forward 
to founding a great military despotism, under which they 
were to be the spoilt children of fortune. It is true a 
sepoy's pay was only seven rupees a month, less than 
fourteen shillings at that period : but as a Brahmin his 
faith restrained him from wasting his money on gross 
appetite, and his simple mode of life left him a surplus 
from which he could help his needy relations : so that he 

19 



BEFORE THE MUTINY 

felt himself a man of some importance. For the Hindoo 
possesses a strong sense of clanship, and is extremely 
generous in his dealings with poor kinsmen. But the 
Indian dustoor, or etiquette of the family, sometimes 
compels him to launch out into enormous expenses through 
which he falls deeply into debt and becomes the slave of 
a grasping, pitiless usurer. For instance, a private soldier 
has often been known to celebrate a marriage feast in such 
style as to necessitate the spending of three or four hundred 
rupees. By this means he achieves a temporary con- 
sideration amongst the native populace, while he loses 
permanently all peace of mind, grows discontented and 
infects his regiment with his own sense of wrong. For 
an Indian regiment was not composed of separate units like 
a British regiment: the soubahdar-major, or native colonel, 
allowed his havildar, or sergeant, to recruit as many natives 
as he liked from his own village : so that a sepoy regiment 
partook of the nature of a clan in which near relations 
stood shoulder to shoulder, and any grievance which hurt 
one sepoy affected all together ; this made them strong as 
a fighting machine, but in time of mutiny proved to be 
fraught with danger to our Empire, for family ties held 
them together against us. Some historians give the 
annexation of Oude as a cause for the mutiny, on the 
ground that the sepoy lost land by the change. Others 
attribute it to Russian intrigue, or Persian interference, 
or Mahommedan conspiracy, things difficult to prove. 

Officers who served in sepoy regiments give more prob- 
able causes of the discontent : they say frankly that the 
sepoy had been taught to believe that he was the mainstay 
of our power in India: he had been indulged and petted 
by successive governors-general and commanding officers, 
who could not believe that the sepoy was at heart unfaithful, 
and who shut their eyes to any evidence of his disaffection. 
The bonds of discipline had gradually been relaxed since 
Lord William Bentinck had put down flogging : then the 
Brahmin priests grew alarmed for their influence and 

20 



MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM 

prestige, as infanticide was stopped, suttee abolished, and 
the privilege of dying under the car of Juggernaut was 
forbidden. Besides all this, Lord Dalhousie made all sepoys 
pay postage for their letters, instead of letting them go free, 
as before, under the signature of their commanding officer. 
The ferries too were no longer free to them; but now, 
unless on duty, they had to pay toll. An officer, who had 
been away from his regiment for ten years, and had been 
home on sick leave, on returning to his old regiment as 
colonel noticed a marked change for the worse in the 
conduct of the sepoys towards their European officers. 

The other officers, who had been with the same men 
continually, did not notice any difference. But the colonel 
remarked at once on the want of cordial respect towards 
officers which had formerly been the rule : he saw with 
dismay a swaggering, free and easy kind of air about the 
sepoys, and that they were quite careless about showing 
respect to officers of other regiments. 

" Riding in uniform past the guards of other regiments, 
I constantly observed that the sepoys would stand with 
their arms folded, their legs straddled, their noses in the 
air; and that they would salute with mock respect, or 
purposely with the left hand, an Indian way of offering an 
affront. I never passed over such acts of disrespect, and 
in the course of a few weeks, as I became known, their 
conduct altered towards myself." 

However, the colonel had a striking illustration of the 
increasing insolence of the native soldiers in his own 
regiment. For a man named Toofanee having a quarrel 
with a comrade lodged a complaint against him before the 
captain of his company. The captain gave his decision, 
but Toofanee appealed to the colonel. On proceeding to 
the mess-house after morning parade to hear the case, the 
colonel met the adjutant and began conversing with him : 
at this moment Toofanee was brought up by the orderly 
havildar, or sergeant of his company, and without waiting 
to be addressed, or until the colonel had done speaking to 

21 



BEFORE THE MUTINY 

the adjutant, he saluted in an insolent manner and shouted 
out, " I shall get no justice here : I shall bring my captain 
before the supreme court in Calcutta." The native officers 
who heard this were highly indignant at the man's insub- 
ordination. 

Toofanee was instantly ordered into confinement, tried 
and punished : but his case was no exceptional one. The 
discipline of the sepoys had fallen from its high standard. 

Another officer accuses Lord William Bentinck of having 
given the Indian army the first and most serious push down 
the incline from discipline to anarchy. In the first place, 
that governor-general made a change which lowered the 
white officer in the eyes of his men. There had been an 
allowance made to each officer, called "batta"; Lord 
William, out of motives of economy, passed " the half batta 
retrenchment " : thus a few thousand pounds were screwed 
out of the pockets of needy officers, who had left home and 
friends to serve in an Indian climate. 

The sepoys immediately said, " Ah ! the English dare 
not touch our pay," and they twirled their moustaches with 
overweening pride and insolence. For, as a rule, the two 
things which the natives of India value most are money 
and power. 

Lord William Bentinck mulcted the British officer in 
both. When he wished to abolish corporal punishment 
in the native army. Lord William sent a circular letter 
to every commanding officer in the service, asking his 
opinion on the subject. As a rule the native officers were 
consulted, and very freely they expressed their opinions. 
Said one, " We hope the Hazoor will not abolish flogging : 
we don't care about it : only the badmashes (scoundrels) 
are flogged, if they deserve it : flog them and turn them 
out : you will find plenty of good men. But if you abolish 
flogging, the army will no longer fear, and there will quickly 
be a mutiny." 

This prophecy came to pass, but how much influence 
the abolition of flogging had in causing a mutiny, it is 

^% 



MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM 

difficult for us in England to say. Flogging seems a 
degrading punishment, and only the degraded should 
suffer it. But there is little doubt that when flogging 
is permitted, too many are forced to submit to it, and 
the punishment is far too severe. A young officer had 
just joined his regiment — it was in 18S3 — in the days of 
tights and hessians : on his first morning there was a 
parade for punishment, and he saw a sepoy get 800 lashes 
for some offence. He says, " The sight of such fearful 
punishment made me shudder, and I went home so 
saddened and sickened by the appalling sight I had seen, 
that my new uniform did not appear so bright that day 
as it had done when I first put it on. My dislike to 
corporal punishment has since increased with years, but 
at the same time I am compelled to avow the sad con- 
viction that the power to inflict it, and its actual infliction 
in certain cases, are at times absolutely and imperatively 
necessary." 

We must remember that the Indian sepoy does not 
drink ; he can avoid committing many crimes for which 
drink is responsible. Most of the sepoys came from Oude 
and were of high caste and the sons of land-owners : they 
were not likely to offend in a way to deserve flogging : they 
knew that a certain number of badmashes could only be 
kept in order by flogging ; hence they gave their opinion 
in favour of the lash, and as there was never any difficulty 
in obtaining recruits, we must infer that flogging had no 
terrors for the ordinary native. Corporal punishment was 
felt to be a powerful aid in the maintenance of discipline : 
orders were obeyed in those days with an alacrity and cheer- 
fulness unknown to more recent times : then there was no in- 
attention or talking in the ranks, for a man could be ordered 
out of the ranks to receive two or three cuts with a cane. 
He preferred this to being confined for hours in barracks. 

It was from a proper feeling of humanity, suggested 
perhaps at Exeter Hall, that flogging was prohibited under 
Bentinck ; and it was from a feeling of its absolute necessity 

S3 



BEFORE THE MUTINY 

that a certain amount of flogging in serious cases was re- 
established by Lord Dalhousie. But commanding officers 
never had the full powers restored to them, and discipline 
suffered : Sir Thomas Seaton has left on record his opinion 
about flogging, and he was both a merciful man and a real 
friend of the natives. 

He wrote in his book From Cadet to Colonel : " In these 
latter days all useful power to control, punish or reward 
has been taken away. ... As for captains commanding 
companies, they were mere nonentities, and were treated by 
the sepoys accordingly. . . . By order of Sir William Gomm, 
any man to whom punishment had been awarded by his 
commanding officer might appeal against it to a court- 
martial, a measure which put the finishing stroke to all 
semblance of power in regimental officers. . . . The weapon 
that kept the wild beast in awe was taken out of their 
hands : the beast rose up against them, and they were 
weaponless, prostrate and helpless." Humanitarians ignored 
the fact that in the composition of respect a very necessary 
ingredient is a certain amount of fear. Here is a case 
which illustrates the change in the method of dealing with 
the sepoy. 

A native soldier, convicted of disreputable conduct, had 
his good-conduct pay stopped for a year. The colonel 
sent a report to headquarters, stating the sepoy's offences, 
and in the margin he wrote, " Furlough and all indulgence 
to this sepoy to be stopped for a period of twelve months." 

By return of post back came the papers from the 
adjutant's office, calling upon the colonel to state by what 
authority he had stopped the sepoy's furlough. 

Thus the colonel's authority was over-ridden by a man 
who was not face to face with the facts ; the sepoy was 
leniently treated, and the discipline of the regiment was 
undermined. 

When for many months the sepoys had been petted and 
spoilt and taught to feel that they were the real conquerors 
of Britain's foes, and their officers only the servants of men 

24 



MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM 

who wrote in offices, a simple act of carelessness on the part 
of an official in Calcutta supplied the spark which lit the 
flame of revolt. 

It had been decided to introduce the Enfield rifle into 
the Indian Army. Now the cartridge for this rifle required 
a lubricating medium which was made up as follows : five 
parts tallow, five stearine, one part wax. In other words, the 
Hindoo sepoy was ordered to bite and handle a cartridge 
smeared with the fat of the cow, an animal which his 
religion bade him hold in great veneration. 

The Mahommedans, so it was said, believed that the 
mixture contained hog's lard : thus we had touched on 
the tenderest spot of both races. The " greased cartridge " 
became known first to one of the guards in the arsenal at 
Fort William ; and this man ran horror-stricken and told 
his comrades there was a plot to destroy caste. 

The rumour flew on wings of fear : the news spread like 
fire among stubble from bazaar to bazaar : the authorities 
did not trouble to explain matters, and suspicion soon grew 
to conviction. 

The Fakirs, those filthy, sensual hedge-priests of the 
East, clad in yellow or orange-tawny, but for the most 
part naked, slid snake-like through the lines and shook their 
matted locks as they hissed the venomous tale in listening 
ears. Indignation stirred the innermost heart of the sepoys : 
they met in council and concocted schemes of red revenge : 
bungalows were burnt and ugly faces breathing hate con- 
fronted the still unsuspecting Briton. The insolence of 
the soldier, his disrespect for his officers, his lust of power 
made him only too ready to catch fire when his religion and 
his cast were, as he believed, the object of our attack. 

He knew on what slender supports our Empire in India 
was based : only twenty thousand white troops held him in 
check, and these were scattered at large over the continent 
of India : he knew that all the field-batteries in Oude were 
manned by native gunners and drivers : he knew that the 
roads were boggy and the rivers choked with sandbanks : 

25 



BEFORE THE MUTINY 

help could not easily be dispatched from garrison or fort. 
But he also was led to believe that nearly all the white 
soldiers that England possessed were on duty in India. 

One ruler, the Mayor of the Palace of Nepaul, had gone 
over to England on purpose to find out the true state of 
affairs : he returned with the assurance that Britain's 
millions of money and thousands of men were not lightly 
to be attacked. 

Yet, though colonels believed that their own men were 
staunch and faithful, the governor-general received warning 
after warning that deep disaffection prevailed thoughout 
the continent. 

" My Lord," wrote a Hindoo, " this is the most critical 
time ever reached in the administration of British India. 
Almost all the independent native princes and rajahs have 
been so much offended at the late annexation policy, that 
they have begun to entertain deadly enmity to the British 
Empire in India. Moreover, as for the internal defences of 
the Empire, the cartridge question has created a strenuous 
movement in some portions of the Hindoo sepoys, and will 
spread it through all their ranks over the whole country to 
the great insecurity of British rule." 

What no officer suspected soon came to pass. 

On the 24th of January 1857 the telegraph office at 
Barrackpur was burnt down : this was the first act of open 
insubordination. On the 25th of February a guard of the 
34th Native Infantry arrived at Bahanipur and talked with 
the men of the 19th Native Infantry who were stationed there. 
The greased cartridge question was discussed ; next day at 
parade, when ordered to exercise with blank cartridge, the 
men all refused to touch the unclean thing ! Next night they 
rose and seized their arms, drumming and shouting defiance. 
The Indian Mutiny had begun ! Thus the circulation of 
the chupatties or Indian cakes, which seemed so mysterious 
months ago, had been explained. The sepoys looked upon 
the chupatty as the symbol of food : they believed that the 
Company meant to deprive them of their food as well as 

26 



MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM 

of their land. The chupatty was to remind them that the 
hundred years were up, and the power of the white man 
was tottering to its fall. 

A short resume of the events of the mutiny will make 
the sketches which follow more distinct. 

On 10th May incendiary fires began at Meerut : then 
the sepoys massacred their officers and marched away to 
Delhi. 

The people of Delhi rose, with the connivance of their 
king, and butchered the Europeans in the city : other 
regiments revolted and joined the rebels at Delhi. 

In May, risings were attempted at Ferozepore, Lahore 
and Peshawur, but by the quick initiative of Montgomery 
and Sir John Lawrence the sepoys were disarmed and the 
Punjab was saved. Thus Lawrence was able to send a 
strong force of Sikhs to aid in the siege of Delhi : this 
practically enabled us to crush the mutiny. 

Meanwhile, risings and massacres occurred throughout 
Oude and the Doab. In Rajputana the native princes 
were faithful, but the widowed Rani of Jhansi headed a 
rising against us. 

At Cawnpur, Nana Sahib ordered a massacre of men, 
women and children after promising safe passage ; while at 
Lucknow, Sir Henry Lawrence was, with wise forethought, 
preparing for a long siege. Lucknow was at length relieved 
by Havelock, Outram, and finally by Sir Colin Campbell. 
Delhi was not re-taken until 20th September, after hard 
fighting. 

General Windham was driven into his entrenchments at 
Cawnpur by Tantia Topee, and only saved by Sir Colin 
making a forced march from Lucknow. 

The Bombay division under Sir Hugh Rose fought their 
way to Jhansi and defeated Tantia Topee in April 1858. 
On 17th June, Sir Hugh Rose captured Gwalior, and Napier 
ended the campaign by the victory of Alipore. The 
mutiny was over, and the East India Company gave way 
to the British Crown. 



CHAPTER II 

SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. : A SOLDIER 
OF THE COMPANY 

GENERAL SEATON in his entertaining book, From 
Cadet to Colonel, tells us of far-off times and 
strange customs ; he saw the first beginnings 
of the Mutiny, and had always observed the native 
sympathetically. Training for the army was not very 
scientific in 1822 : for, one day, a cousin called at 
Seaton's home and said : 

" Tom, would you like to go to India as a cadet ? " 

" Yes, very much," replied the boy of sixteen : a sudden 
vacancy had occurred, Tom Seaton was rushed into a new 
uniform, and in a week was sailing from Spithead bound for 
Calcutta. 

A small amount of Latin and Greek had been caned 
into him ; a few months in a London school had brushed 
up his arithmetic and French, but of the world — its trials 
and temptations — he knew nothing, and still less of his 
new profession of Arms. The good ship Thames was in no 
hurry, she took nearly six months getting to Calcutta : 
Tom was completing his education in his own style and 
method. With three other cadets he sprang ashore, near 
Calcutta, at Chandpaul ghaut (steps), somewhere near mid- 
night on the 1st of January 1823. 

They were alone in the dark in a strange land, not 
knowing a word of the language : just as they were about 
to return to their boat a figure in white loomed up, and 
cried out in harsh, metallic voice : 

" Master, where come from ? " 

28 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

"From England," replied one. 

" Master belong ship ? What business make ? " 

" We are officers." 

" Oh ! officers. Master, where go now ? " 

'* Don't know : where is the fort ? Is there any hotel ? " 

" Fort long way. All officer gentlemen's sleep ; master 
go punch ghur." 

" Punch ghur ? what in blazes is that ? " 

'' There master get some eaty-drinky, sleepy bed. Yes, 
I show way ; master give a littil present — backshish ! boat- 
man — he carry things." 

So they were personally conducted to a villainous tavern, 
where some sailors were drinking, smoking, and playing 
billiards : they were too sleepy to talk, and went off to bed. 

Next morning they found the fort and were received by 
the superintendent of cadets and taken to the cadets' mess, 
which consisted of twenty young men, ensigns waiting to be 
posted to regiments, and cadets like themselves, serving the 
East India Company on the pay of ninety rupees a month. 

" No care was in any way taken of us : we were neither 
sent to drill nor taught our duty, nor encouraged to study 
the native languages. The consequences may be imagined. 
A parcel of young lads, just released from the restraint of 
school, arriving in this country, green and ignorant, — many 
at once ran riot and commenced a career of debauchery and 
profligacy that speedily ended in ruin." 

Fortunately young Seaton, having a brand-new gun, 
delighted to cross the river and shoot every bird he saw : so 
he was kept out of mischief. In a month or so he was pro- 
moted to the rank of ensign and sent to Barrackpur. A 
native boat took him lazily up river : on arrival he reported 
himself to the adjutant, who took him to call on the colonel. 
To the first question, " Have you any uniform ? " Tom had 
to reply, " Not much, sir : I had no time to get it ready." 

" Well, you have a sword, I suppose ? " 

" No, sir ; it was in my list, but the outfitter forgot it, 
I expect." 

29 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

The colonel and adjutant exchanged meanmg glances ; 
the result was that a new outfit had to be ordered from a 
Calcutta tailor. The bill that followed was prodigious ! 
and alas ! the letters from home, after its reception, scolded 
him for being a spendthrift and a scapegrace. Then came 
the learning of regimental drill — warm work in the new red 
coat — and days in the jungle with shot and gun. There 
was no common mess-room, but five or six officers living in 
bungalows would chum together, camp fashion. 

In July, Seaton was posted to the 17th Native Infantry 
at Ludhiana, and went by water in a native budgerow with 
sixteen oars, having in tow a small boat for cooking in. For 
figure-head this clumsy craft had the figure of a European, 
black hat, blue coat and yellow waistcoat. The roof of the 
cabin was flat and formed a promenade. As the boat was 
flat-bottomed it steered very badly and would sheer out, 
or run ashore, in a way that tried the temper of the crew 
badly. 

Arriving at Cawnpur, Seaton and his friend hired a 
bungalow whilst they bought camels, horses and tents for 
their forward march. They were advised to take a chokeg- 
dar, or watchman, to prevent being robbed. As they seemed 
to consider this a useless expense, being still "griffs" or 
newcomers, they were told of a young officer who defied all 
the thieves and found next morning that his boxes had been 
removed from his bedroom, his gun and pistols had been 
taken from his bed, and his sword had been stuck through 
his mattress. Thieving in India is a fine art. 

Seaton then took a fine old Brahmin of sixty, and old 
Bhowanny took to his master and treated him like a boy of 
his own. For eleven years this faithful Indian clave to his 
master, scolding him heartily when he was imprudent, and 
not allowing the servants to cheat him. 

In those days there was a continuous jungle from four 
miles out of Delhi to Kurnal : now it is all under good 
cultivation. Seaton arrived at Ludhiana in December 1823, 
and was warmly welcomed by his brother-officers. He soon 

30 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

engaged a moonshee (teacher) and studied Hindostanee, so 
that he could converse with the villagers. 

Some of the native regiments at that period had a bhat, 
or bard, whose business it was to incite the men in action to 
deeds of valour. The bard in Seaton's regiment was a noble- 
looking fellow, six feet high, with a splendid head and 
patriarchal beard of grey. Every day after parade he used 
to plant the butt of his spear on the ground, raise his right 
hand, and roll out in deep sonorous tones the praises of the 
colonel and all his officers. 

In October 1825, Seaton's regiment escorted the guns 
from Meerut which were being taken to the siege of 
Bhurtpur. The sepoys were then faithful to their salt, 
but the villagers predicted defeat to the gora log (white 
men) : one wrinkled hag came from her hut and, raising 
skinny arms in the air, cried hoarsely, " Go to Bhurtpur ! 
they'll split you up. Go and be killed, all of you." 

At this a sepoy rushed out of the ranks, and flourishing 
his firelock over her head, exclaimed, " Get in, old hag : 
when we come back, the elephants shall serve you out : well 
pound you and your brats into mortar." 

However, the strong walls succumbed to a mine, 
storming parties rushed through the breach, and the 
British took the stronghold. 

In 1835, Seaton lost the wife he had married at Barrack - 
pur and most of his fortune ; he asked for three years' 
furlough and returned to England. 

In 1838 he married again and sailed for Calcutta : a 
pilot came on board in the river, and on taking a newspaper 
the first thing Seaton read told him his regiment had 
marched for the campaign in Afghanistan. Husband and 
wife looked at each other in suspense : she knew no one in 
India: must she return to England, or live alone in a 
strange land ? 

It ended in Seaton leaving his wife at Simla, and by the 
kind help of Sir Henry Lawrence he secured a boat at 
Ferozepur and soon joined the convoy, carrying guns and 

31 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

stores to the army. In crossing a desert the sepoys suffered 
terribly from want of water, and camp-followers carrying 
infants excited great compassion : strong men fell and beat 
their breasts, the camels were exhausted and could only go 
two and a half miles in the hour. 

Seaton and a sepoy were looking for water in a ravine : 
the latter could not speak, his tongue rattled in his mouth 
and his face was distorted with agony ; yet he made no 
complaint, but struggled on. 

Many died of brain fever, and cholera made its dread 
appearance. " My servant, Hyder, a descendant of the 
Prophet and entitled to wear a green turban, came a mile 
out of camp,"" writes Seaton, " and met me with a bottle 
of tea : I was very grateful to the good fellow." The roads 
were littered with dead and dying : the strong suffered 
from dust and myriads of flies and the stench of the dead 
camels. 

At last the only white doctor died, and faces began to 
look grave. One of the native officers had a little girl, his 
only child, in camp with him. She was a pretty, lively 
prattling thing of about six years of age, the delight of 
everybody. Every day she would chatter to her father, 
help him to light his fire and cook his food. One morning 
at ten o'clock she was quite well, at 3 p.m. she was dead 
and laid out for burial. The day the convoy arrived at 
Baugh, the natives told them that a report had come that 
all had perished, as they had never heard of a convoy 
crossing the desert in June ! 

On reaching a large pool of water the sepoys and camp- 
followers rushed into the water with shouts of delight, and 
from that hour all began to mend. A hundred sepoys had 
died, 300 camp-followers, and 6 officers. 

When a camel was exhausted he would suddenly stop 
and sit down : from that position no torture could make 
the poor animal budge. " His heart is broken,"' said the 
natives, and they left him to die alone. Sometimes an 
officer would try a gill of whisky and water, followed by 

32 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

good food mixed with warming spice : then the camel 
might recover, if rested for a fortnight. 

At Quetta they found a climate as cool as that of an 
English summer, gardens and fruit trees and long-woolled 
sheep met their eyes, and if it had not been for the jessail, or 
long rifles, of the Beloochees, they would have enjoyed their 
marches towards Candahar. 

They halted one day at Ghuznee, where our men had 
just recently blown in the gate under Captain Thomson of 
the Bengal Engineers. When the Ameer heard that Ghuznee 
had fallen, he lost heart : for his people said, " Who can 
stand before the dreaded English ? " 

But a terrible calamity overtook Colonel Herring, who, 
with Lieutenants Carlyon and Hawtry, had climbed a hill 
to get a view. For they were suddenly attacked by Afghans, 
and, being unarmed, had to run down the hill : the colonel 
was caught by an Afghan, but managed to seize him by the 
throat and strike him with his stick. But another Afghan 
came up and drew his knife over the coloneFs loins. When 
his body was found, it was an awful sight, hacked and mangled 
out of recognition by sixteen or seventeen deep wounds. 

When the convoy reached Cabul they delivered over 
the treasure and stores, and Seaton was kindly welcomed 
by his old comrades and Sir Robert Sale. But out of 
5000 camels that started with the convoy, only 500 
reached Cabul : the rest had died on the road. 

In war, more men die of disease than by wounds, except 
in a Japanese army ; for our friends have learnt the use of 
science. In war it is the patient animal that suff'ers most : 
yet it need not be so : the lives of camels, horses and mules 
are well worth a little thought before the campaign opens. 

At Cabul, Seaton noticed how the British soldiers 
fraternised with the sepoys, and the sepoys would often 
relieve the sentries for an hour. It would be too long a 
task to describe how Sir Robert Sale marched from Cabul 
to Jellalabad in November 1841, how he held that city and 
repaired the fortifications and drove off the enemy by 
c 33 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

sorties, how on the 9th of January 1842 there came a letter 
from General Elphinstone, recounting the slaughter of the 
English Envoy and his own capitulation to Akbar Khan, 
and finishing by an order to Sale to retire to Peshawur. 
However, that order was never acted upon : the flag was 
kept flying on the crumbling ramparts. 

" On the 13th of January,'' writes Seaton, " I was on 
guard at the south gate, when, a little after twelve o'clock, 
some one came rushing along the passage. The door was 

burst open and Lieutenant B threw himself into my arms, 

exclaiming, ' My God ! Seaton, the whole of our Cabul 
army has been destroyed.' " Only Dr. Brydone had escaped, 
as Lady Butler's picture shows us. The flag was hoisted at 
the west gate as a sign to fugitives, should there be any, 
cavalry were sent out, and at night buglers were posted to 
sound the advance every quarter of an hour : but the 
dreadful dirge brought no single soldier out of the Cabul 
Pass, the Afghans had shot all who had not died of cold 
and fatigue. This was the first catastrophe at Jellalabad. 

The second occurred on the 19th of February : a little 
after eleven in the morning came a shock of an earthquake 
and a rumbling noise : this noise went on and grew louder, 
till it surpassed in volume the loudest thunder. The 
ground heaved in waves like a sea, one could not stand up 
without clutching at something for support : the walls and 
bastions began to rock and reel and crumble into dust and 
ruin. Then came a dead silence and men's faces were green 
with fear, while horses sweated and groaned and put their 
muzzles to the ground. Happily only three men were 
crushed, in the cavalry hospital. 

" A month's cannonading with a hundred pieces of 
heavy artillery could not have produced the damage that 
the earthquake had effected in a few seconds. . . . The hand 
of the Almighty had indeed humbled our pride, and taught 
us the wholesome lesson that He alone is a sure defence." 
Without any delay every man in garrison was set to work 
and walls of clay and earth were run up around the city. 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

The enemy, who rode up to see the ruins, galloped back 
with the report that the white man's magic had prevailed 
even against an earthquake ! In all this trouble the sepoys 
had behaved nobly, and when provisions ran short they 
stinted themselves to feed their white friends in our army. 
Great numbers of the British soldiers had friends amongst 
the sepoys, and some, when on the point to die, would 
send for their sepoy friend to be with them in their last 
moments. 

Thus, when Jellalabad had been saved and the brave 
garrison had marched to Ferozepur, being received at every 
station by Lord Ellenborough's order with presented arms, 
the native officers came to Seaton and said, " Sir, we shall 
soon be separated from our white brothers, the 13th Light 
Lifantry, and the whole regiment wish to give them a 
dinner."" When Seaton approved of this, one said, " We 
will buy everything for our brothers but pig's flesh." 

Hindoos and Mahommedans abhor swine's flesh ; the 
Hindoo holds the cow sacred, but for all that there was 
plenty of beef on the tables. The dinner took place with 
eclat, aides-de-camp and staff officers looking in to see the 
fun : and soon after, the 13th gave a dinner to the 
native regiment, the 35th, and showed they were indeed 
brothers in arms. It is good to think of these things ; even 
though the dark brothers, under the influence of religious 
frenzy, were soon to lose our respect and behave like cruel 
demons. 

At last Seaton was free to rejoin his wife at Simla, 
where he spent thirty days of peace in a lovely cottage girt 
about with whispering deodars. He was then appointed 
Major of Brigade and was sent to Agra ; where, one day, as 
he sat at his desk writing, a sudden darkness came on, and 
a strange sound was heard, and the silent native orderlies, 
who were just outside, began to talk excitedly. Seaton 
called out : 

"What is it.?" 

" Tiddee, sahib " (locusts, sir). 

35 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

He went out and saw the air and sky teaming with 
millions of locusts and the only sound heard was the rustling 
of their wings. Some settled on big branches and broke 
them down ; every vestige of foliage was devoured in a few 
minutes, and then they took to wing again. 

In 1851, Seaton again went to England to escape ague, 
on a sick furlough of three years. He landed in Calcutta 
in December in 1854 in good health and joined his regiment 
at Sealkote in the Punjab as colonel. The station faced 
the north, and the Cashmere Mountains rose directly in 
front, covered with snow, peak after peak, stretching right 
and left for 200 miles. 

Seaton had not seen the regiment for ten years, but 
fully half the men were old friends and had shared with him 
the perils of Jellalabad. However, his first week showed 
very plainly a marked change for the worse in the bearing 
and feeling of the sepoys towards their officers. The other 
officers, being used to it, did not notice the growing in- 
dependence of the native soldiers : the power of the officer 
to keep strict order had been impaired, and the sepoy 
swaggered about as if he were the master and could court- 
martial any captain among them. 

In April 1857, Seaton had a return of his old malady 
and went to Simla : a strange disinclination to start had 
troubled him and nearly kept him at Sealkote, but he 
thought it the result of his ailment and set off, reaching 
Simla on the 8th of May. 

On the 11th, news came to Simla of a revolt of the 
troops at Meerut on the day before, and all officers of the 
Meerut division were ordered to return at once to their 
stations. In the afternoon the adjutant-general, Colonel 
Chester, told Seaton it was the desire of the commander-in- 
chief that he should proceed to Umballa and take command 
of the 60th N.I., which had shown strong symptoms of 
disaffection. Seaton reached Umballa on the 15th of May, 
and discussed affairs with Lieutenant Shebbeare : they spoke 
of the previous acts of insubordination, the burning of the 

36 




MUNGUL PaNDY 

Mungul Pandy fired at Lieutenant Baugh, the Adjutant, and wounded his horse. 
Baugh fired his pistol at him but missed, and the Sepoy, drawing his sword, cut him 
dpwn. Pandy was one of the first of the Sepoys to fire on the British, and from this 
circumstance the mutineers were known as "Pandies." 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

telegraph office at Barrackpur on the 24th of January, the 
refusal of the sepoys to take the cartridges on the 25th of 
February, the nightly meetings of the 2nd and 34th N.I. at 
Barrackpur. H.M.'s 84th regiment had been sent for from 
Rangoon and had encamped a few miles above Barrackpur, 
but the sepoys of the 34th N.I. were reported to be highly 
excited. On the 29th, one of them, Mungul Pandy, had 
stalked through the lines with a loaded musket, shouting, 
" Rise, boys, rise, and shoot the white men." Lieutenant 
Baugh, the adjutant, galloped off to the parade to restore 
order ; but Mungul Pandy aimed at him and fired, wound- 
ing his horse in the flank and bringing down the rider. 
Baugh, however, jumped up, fired his pistol at Pandy but 
missed him. 

Then the sepoy, di'awing his sword, cut the lieutenant 
down : as the sergeant-major ran out to help Baugh, he 
called out to the quarter-guard to come to his assistance. 

The native officer commanding, upon this, ordered his 
men not to move, and the sergeant was also cut down. 
Then the quarter-guard, with their native officer, ran in and 
began to beat the officers about the head with the butts 
of their muskets. 

At this moment Lieutenant Baugh's ]\Iahommedan 
orderly came running up and seized Pandy just as he had 
reloaded his musket. 

Then appeared General Hearsy and his two sons, 
roused by the sound of firing, and with their help 
Baugh and the sergeant were rescued from the grip of 
the sepoys. 

Then General Hearsy said to the orderly who had saved 
the lieutenant, " Shaikh Pultoo, I promote you to the 
higher grade of havildar for your prompt and courageous 
action." 

Mungul Pandy was secured and lodged in the quarter- 
guard of the 70th N.I., and it was owing to this man's 
fanatical conduct so early in the Mutiny that the mutineers 
came to be known as " Pandies." General Hearsy had 

37 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

promoted this orderly on the spur of the moment for his 
brave conduct ; but for doing this the general received a 
reprimand in a few days from Colonel Birch, Military 
Secretary to Government. It is the old story — not trust- 
ing the man on the spot : the clever man writing at his 
desk miles away from the occurrences thinks he knows 
better than the man who has all the facts at his finger- 
ends. Mungul Pandy was tried, convicted and hanged in 
front of the troops on the 8th of April. 

Then the authorities at Calcutta began to congratulate 
themselves on having crushed the mutiny, and were hiring 
transports for sending back H.M.'s 84th regiment to 
Rangoon. But on the 4th of May they learnt by telegram 
of the mutiny of the 7th Irregular Cavalry at Lucknow, 
and the order for the 84th to return to Rangoon was 
luckily rescinded. It was then thought advisable to get 
rid of the 34th N.I. who had been present in the lines on 
the 29th of March when Lieutenant Baugh was attacked. 
So the regiment was paid up, marched across the river 
without arms and dismissed. The disbanded sepoys carried 
the seeds of mutiny to their homes or wherever they scattered 
in their fury and wild treason. It was probably owing to 
the too mild treatment of these regiments that the troops 
at Meerut began burning their officers' bungalows. General 
Hewitt, thinking there were plenty of Europeans in the 
station to prevent any riot, ordered a parade of the 3rd 
Light Cavalry on the 5th of May ; but S5 men refused to 
touch the cartridges. They were tried and condemned to six 
or ten years' imprisonment. 

This fired the smouldering passion : they rose en masse, 
burnt the buildings and made off to Delhi. 

All this and more Seaton must have been discussing 
when the news came that the commander-in-chief had 
ordered all troops to assemble at Umballa, to prepare for an 
advance on Delhi. 

The commander-in-chief arrived on the 15th of May, 
and on the 16th a council of war was held to discuss the 

38 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

question of disarming the two native regiments in the 
station, the 5th and 6th Native Infantry. 

Seaton's advice was to disarm at once, and as he knew 
more about the native mind than most, his opinion 
carried weight, and he left the council table with the order 
in his pocket to disarm at 4 p.m. But when Seaton was 
going to the parade appointed, he found there the Persian 
interpreter and Military Secretary, who told liim that 
the chief had changed his mind : the men were to be 
trusted ! 

However, disgusted as he was at this vacillation, Seaton 
had to make the best of it : so he addressed the men, say- 
ing it had been resolved they should have an opportunity of 
being faithful. They received his speech well and swore 
fidelity to their colours. 

After parade, Seaton chatted with the native officers, 
amongst w^hom was a soubahdar-major whom he had known 
before. A little talk with him and a few inquiries after 
old friends pleased the man, for he was a genial, intelligent 
old fellow, " and from that moment he seemed to bear me 
goodwill," says Seaton. 

Thus, then, the troops began their march on Delhi, and 
reached Kurnal on the 24th : but the European soldiers, 
having heard of the atrocities committed at Meerut, and 
having seen the mutinous conduct of the 60th N.I., began 
to say loudly that they would not remain in camp with the 
60th. The only thing the staff could think of now was to 
order Seaton to march with the 60th to Rohtuck, which 
was forty-five miles from Delhi : he was to intercept troops 
which had mutinied at Hansi and Hissar and had massacred 
their officers : and he was to do all this with a regiment 
ripe for mutiny ! 

There was a good road from Rohtuck to Delhi, and the 
most probable consequence of this move would be that the 
sepoys would massacre all their officers and join the 
mutineers at Delhi with their arms, camp equipage and 
service ammunition. 



39 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

When Colonel Chester, the Adjutant-General, gave 
Seaton his orders, so thoroughly ashamed was he of this 
cruel, half-hearted measure that he could not lift his eyes 
from the paper before him. And when Seaton and his 
officers bade their friends good-bye, there was a wistful 
look in their eyes, as though they knew their friends were 
going to certain death. 

However, the doomed men put a good face on the 
matter and spoke cheerily to all. The first day's march 
showed the mutinous spirit of the 60th : for as they crossed 
a canal. Colonel Seaton halted his men to let them drink. 
There was a grove of young mango trees in full bearing 
close at hand ; this the sepoys tried to pillage of its fruit, 
but the officers hurried up to stop them. One young sepoy 
was very insolent to his captain and answered roughly 

when ordered to fall in. Captain S collared him to 

force him back to the ranks : the sepoy resisted and the men 
began to look angry. 

Seaton felt that instant interference was necessary ; so, 
stepping slowly up to the man and looking him sternly in 
the face, he said, " Do you know what you are about ? go 
and fall in instantly ; you are all mad.'*'' 

The sepoy at once put up his hands in submission, and 
obeyed his colonel. The calm, determined tone of the 
officer and the habit of obedience had their full weight for 
the moment. 

At the halting-place, Seaton sent for that sepoy, a fine, 
handsome young fellow, looking rather troubled. 

" What had become of your senses this morning ? " 
asked the colonel in a serious tone. 

" Sahib," the man replied respectfully, " I did great 
wrong : I have repented, and will never do so again : for- 
give me." 

"The commander-in-chief has been very good to this 
regiment : instead of punishing you all for your mutiny at 
Umballa, he freely pardoned you. He took me from my 
own regiment and sent me to this, that I might be kind to 

40 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

you and warn you against further error. Is this the return 
you make ? "" 

" Colonel Sahib, I have repented ; forgive me.'"' 

" Very well ; your soubahdar says you are sorry, and your 
captain says you are generally a well-behaved man, so I 
forgive you." 

We see in this and similar cases that the Indian temper 
was susceptible even at the beginning of the Mutiny of 
gentle influences : this man expected to be met by a burst 
of anger and to be tried and punished. His colonel's calm 
and kindly feeling disarmed all resentment, and, as events 
proved, this sepoy became a faithful friend in the hour 
of danger. The heat became intense, the dust choked 
them as they marched on through the night : Seaton 
nodded sleepily on horseback and often had to get oflP and 
walk to save himself a fall. 

They had halted at a walled village at 2 a.m. and 
the men were clustered round a well and were drawing 
water eagerly. 

When an hour had passed, Seaton rose from his horse- 
cloth on which with his officers he had been lying, and 
ordered the call to be sounded. As the men did not leave 
the well readily, Seaton went up and called out, "Now, 
men, don't delay : let us get this march over in the cool 
of the morning." 

No one spoke, but one man came up and saluting, said 
abruptly, "My lotah has fallen into the well: I want 
leave to stay behind to get it out." 

A lotah is a brass pot which every sepoy carries strapped 
on his knapsack. Seaton knew this was an excuse, but 
something prompted him to say kindly, " What is the 
value of your lotah ? " 

" A rupee and a half, sahib." 

" Well, don't be so foolish as to risk being killed by 
staying behind amongst these wild people. Come on into 
camp and I will give you a new one. A lotah is nothing 
to me, but a sepoy's life is a great deal." 

41 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

The man's face brightened, he snapped his fingers and 
called out, " Come along, brothers, you hear what the 
Colonel Sahib says." 

So the march was resumed, and the colonel thought 
no more of it. But some days later, after Seat on had 
escaped to the camp at Delhi, a Sikh servant said to him, 
" I heard about you, sahib, from a sepoy who helped 
me to escape from the mutineers.''** 

" Indeed ! What was it you heard ? " 

"Do you know what the men were about, sahib, at 
the village well ? You remember, when we halted there 
was a lot of talking." 

" Oh yes, I remember ; a sepoy's lotah had fallen into 
the well." 

" No, sahib, that was all pretence : the men were all 
of the grenadier company, and when you came up they 
were debating whether they should shoot you and the 
officers : and if you had been angry with the sepoy who 
spoke to you and had answered him roughly, he would 
have shot you at once : for his musket was loaded." 

Gentle words and kind deeds prevailed for a time in 
keeping the 60th true to their salt ; but the colonel, 
conversing cheerfully with the men whenever he passed 
through the lines, and visiting the hospital daily, could 
see under their respectful demeanour that some deep fire 
of discord was smouldering in their hearts. 

For three days after his arrival at Rohtuck, Seaton saw 
no change : but on the 4th of June, about 5 p.m., as he 
was writing in the mess-tent, the adjutant came in and 
said, " Colonel, I wish to speak to you." 

" Well, Shebbeare, what is it ? " said the colonel. 

"I have just heard from two of our drummers 
(Eurasians) that the regiment is to mutiny to-night, 
murder the officers, and be off to Delhi." 

Seaton thought it out for a bit and replied, " Very well : 
in half an hour the men will assemble in front of their 
tents for evening roll-call. I will go on parade and tax 

42 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

them with their intended outbreak : tell the officers to 
look out.'' 

Accordingly the colonel at sunset went on parade, 
called the native officers in front, away from their respective 
companies, and taxed them with their intended treachery. 

The sepoy officers were confounded when they knew 
that their secret plot was discovered : they one and all 
denied the charge and swore to be faithful. The men 
who had been listening quietly made no movement, and 
Seaton went to each company and said a few warning 
words. 

When Seaton rejoined the European officers who stood 
at a distance, " What is it, colonel— is it all right ? " they 
asked anxiously. 

" Oh yes," Seaton replied cheerfully, " I think our 
throats are safe for to-night, and you may turn in with- 
out fear." 

The next few days were spent in anxious expectation 
of a revolt. On the 8th of June, as Seaton was going 
in the evening to visit the hospital, and as he was about 
to cross a deep ditch, the young sepoy who had been rude 
to the captain by the well came out of his tent and gave 
the colonel a hand. As he stooped, he whispered, " Colonel 
Sahib, when your Highness's people shall have regained 
the Empire, I will make my petition to your Highness." 

These words, so full of mystery, made Seaton think 
the moment for rising had come. He says, " I had no 
other course to pursue than to do my duty as firmly, 
as honestly and as wisely as I could, and trust to God's 
mercy and goodness for a favourable result." 

Seaton had been forgotten by his superiors : they had 
been too busy to send him the news of victories won on 
the 30th of May. The news of these successes would 
have served to keep the 60th quiet, he thought. No 
wonder his officers felt a little embittered : " the men in 
power sent us off to Rohtuck to be out of the way : they 
seem mighty indifferent as to what our fate shall be." 

43 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

Next day, as all seemed going on as usual, five of the 
young officers arranged to go out shooting. At 4 p.m., 
as the colonel sat writing letters in short, cotton drawers 
and shoes, a great explosion startled him. With his pen 
in his hand he ran out to see what was the matter, but 
could find no noise or tumult : most of the sepoys were 
lying down asleep, and a few were cooking. 

As he gained the centre of the camp, the havildar- 
major, or native sergeant-major, rushed up and caught 
him by the arm and said hurriedly, '' Colonel Sahib, don't 
go to the front."" 

"Why not?'' 

" The grenadiers are accoutring themselves." 

" By whose order, havildar ? " 

" Biggur-geea our kya " (They have mutinied). 

At once the colonel called out for the native officers : it 
was in vain : not one answered his appeal. So, seeing the 
game was up, Seaton returned to his tent, put on a pair of 
corduroy trousers and called for his syce to bring his horse. 
Just then the grenadiers burst out of their tents and fired 
at the white officers, while the other sepoys, who were not 
in the secret, started up and stared stupidly about them. 
The shouts and the shots, the rush of mutineers and camp- 
followers, the cries of terror from the camp-followers and 
the galloping of horses formed a confused medley of sights 
and sounds. 

Seaton snatched up his watch and keys and, without his 
sword, jumped on his horse when the mutineers were only 
ten paces from him. Luckily they had discharged their 
muskets, and so he got off unwounded. They rode through 
the night to Delhi, and Seaton dismounted at Sir H, 
Barnard's tent about 9 a.m. 

The general was at breakfast with his staff. They all 
turned in surprise. "Good God! why, we have just been 
told the 60th had mutinied and killed all their officers 
except five that were out shooting ! " 

After having some breakfast. Colonel Seaton went round 

4)4 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

the British camp like a beggar, securing a coat, a sword, a 
pair of boots, etc. 

His friend Hodson invited him to share his tent 
and got him a good charpoy (bedstead). The Assistant 
Adjutant -General Ewart provided him with a sword 
and belt and posted him to the first brigade as a field 
officer. 

" My first night's rest was heavenly. I heard distinctly 
all the firing, but it did not disturb me. For three nights 
before the 60th mutinied I had had little rest, and I 
had been on horseback from 4 p.m. the day before until 
9 a.m. this day. . . . No wonder, then, that my sleep was 
profound." 

We will not follow Colonel Seaton through his adventures 
during the siege of Delhi, as that part of the Mutiny war 
can come in later. On the 23rd July, however, as Seaton 
was helping two men to carry Captain Law, he was himself 
struck by a bullet on the left breast. Finding that no air 
issued from the wound, he concluded his lungs were unhurt. 
Dismounting, he felt faint, and was placed in a charpoy : 
soon he met his friend Hodson, who at once galloped off to 
camp and called a surgeon. The ball had struck on a rib, 
fractured it and driven it forcibly on the lung, passing out 
finally at the back. Seaton says : — 

" Hodson's care for me I shall never forget. He watched 
and tended me with the affection of a brother : he antici- 
pated all my wants, prevented me from speaking (according 
to the doctor's orders) and carefully excluded every one from 
the tent." 

This is high praise for Hodson, who has been so un- 
mercifully condemned for one act of swift vengeance com- 
mitted in a moment of excitement. On the SOth of 
September, Seaton went to Simla to regain his strength ; he 
had latterly been acting as prize agent, but the foul air of 
Delhi interfered with his recovery. 

He soon was able to ride about, and in November 
received this telegram : — 

45 



Sm THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

"If you wish to command the 1st Fusiliers, come to 
Delhi as soon as you can. Colonel Gerrard has been killed 
in action.'^ 

Seaton accepted, and on arrival at Delhi found he was 
ordered to escort a convoy of grain and stores through the 
Doab, land between the Ganges and the Jumna, to the 
commander-in-chiefs camp. With a force of 2300 men, 
Colonel Seaton was to guard 4500 bullock-carts, 8000 camels, 
1500 camp-followers and 16,000 bullocks : the whole might 
cover some eighteen miles of road. Before starting, Seaton 
asked General Penney if, instead of taking the squadron of 
dragoons detailed for him, he might have Major Hodson 
with his regiment of horse. 

" But Hodson's corps is not so strong as the others, nor 
so well mounted," said the general. 

" I know that, sir, but as the safety of the convoy will 
depend mainly on getting accurate information of the 
enemy, I wish to have Hodson ; for I know well that if any 
man can get it, he is the man. He is indefatigable — a 
soldier of the highest class. I have unbounded confid- 
ence in him, and would rather have him than 500 more 

men."" 

General Penney, on hearing this, assented to his request. 

Just before starting the news came in that a large body 
of rebels was on the road, and threatening Colonel Farquhar 
and his small force. So a message was sent to Farquhar 
that help was coming. When Seaton and his convoy were 
well on their way, Hodson was sent on scout to discover 
the position and numbers of the enemy : he took with him 
Major Light of the Artillery. 

Camp was marked out and the men began to pitch their 
tents, but to make things safe against a surprise, the horses 
were kept close to the guns, and the cavalry were ordered 
to keep their horses saddled. 

Presently Major Light was seen to be returning at full 
gallop. " Captain Hodson desires me to say, sir, that the 
enemy's cavalry are advancing in force on both flanks." 

46 



A SOT.DIER OF THE COMPANY 

Seaton, wondering if the enemy thought they had only 
Farquhar to tackle, sang out, " Bugler, the alarm ! Mount, 
and turn out the artillery." Captain Trench turned out 
the dragoons, who drew their girths and were in saddle in 
three minutes. 

At the sound of the alarm the 1st Fusiliers dropped 
their tents, and slung on their accoutrements. 

In front of Seaton's camp was a village about 400 yards 
off, and beyond this was a slight rise in the ground, so that 
any view of the enemy was cut off by a sort of ridge crowned 
by hillocks and tufts of grass. Hodson had retired slowly 
and now came at a smart trot round the village and made 
his report of the enemy having artillery. Meanwhile two 
large bodies of cavalry appeared on the crest of the hill and 
their artillery began to open on the British troops. 

" They are getting our range ! Captain Bishop — your 
battery to the front." 

Instantly Bishop dashed out and carried with him vast 
clouds of dust, driven by a strong wind into the faces of the 
enemy. 

The dust prevented the enemy from seeing how many 
they had to tight, but the terrible accuracy of our guns 
startled them not a little. 

" Look out, sir," cried the bugler, and as he spoke a 
cannon-ball came bounding along the plain, and fortunately 
leapt over the coloneFs head, while a second ball just 
skimmed over his croupe. 

The infantry under Colonel Farquhar advanced rapidly, 
and Hodson on the left moved forward with the whole of 
his regiment against the rebel cavalry, who were trying 
to take our guns in flank. Captain Wardlaw and his 
dragoons then charged and captured the guns of the 
enemy. Upon this the rebels, utterly routed and astonished, 
abandoned their last gun and two ammunition waggons : 
the infantry threw away their arms and hid themselves 
in the cotton crops, but a vigorous pursuit was kept up 
by our guns and cavalry. Captain Wardlaw, a good and 

47 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

gallant soldier, was unfortunately killed in this pursuit by 
desperate men darting out suddenly from the tall pulse. 
Our loss was 48 killed and wounded, but the enemy lost 
ten times that number, and bitterly regretted the trap 
into which they had flung themselves. It follows that 
the Hindoo villagers had not given the rebels any hint 
of our reinforced numbers ; for they did not actively 
sympathise with the cause of revolt : a gentle, indolent 
race — they do not seem to care who rules them, so long 
as they are treated with justice. Next morning, after 
leaving Khasgunge and on entering Suhawir, they found a 
man hanging by the heels to the branch of a tree — quite 
dead. He had been one of Seaton's scouts, had been 
caught and slowly shot to death as he hung. 

As Seaton was congratulating himself on having cleared 
the country of rebels and of having made it safe to bring 
on the treasure and stores, Mr. Cocks, the able commis- 
sioner of the district, rode up to say that a notorious 
traitor, Jowahir Khan, a pensioned rissaldar who with his 
sons had fought against us, had just returned to his home 
at Khasgunge. 

" Hodson, take a troop and apprehend him," said the 
colonel. 

In a few hours Hodson returned, saying, " I've got him, 
colonel : we rode in at a gallop, surrounded the house, 
burst open the door, killed the son and seized the traitor." 

This man had been honoured and richly rewarded by 
the Company : he was sentenced to be blown away from a 
gun— a painless death, but one which makes a great 
impression on the native spectators. 

We must remember that the feelings of our soldiers 
were excited to a pitch of fury by the sepoys'* cruelties to 
English women and children. Some of us can remember 
how the tale of Cawnpur roused every town and village in 
Great Britain to call meetings for revenge : we cannot 
wonder, then, that men like Hodson threw away all thought 
of mercy. Early in January, 1858, Colonel Seaton met 

48 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

Sir Colin Campbell and his Highlanders, and was warmly 
congratulated for his vigorous opening of the country. 

In the course of a few days, Seaton was made a 
brigadier, but his hopes of sharing in the relief of Lucknow 
were dashed by his being appointed to command the 
Futtygurh district, because he was the only brigadier who 
could speak the language and manage the natives. 

The country along the Jumna was a network of ravines, 
a perfect hiding-place for all the ruffians and outlaws of the 
district, while at Alagunge there was a body of 15,000 
rebels with cavalry and artillery. The day before Sir Colin 
marched, he said to Seaton : " You'll be mobbed, my dear 
friend, as soon as I leave, but you must hold out till I come 
back. Push on the repairs of the fort and indent on Agra 
for ammunition for your guns." 

Sir Colin took with him all Seaton's movable column 
and Hodson. Of the latter Seaton writes : " All through 
the siege of Delhi we had shared the same tent. When I 
was wounded, he had tended me with anxious care and 
kindness ; — he was the very perfection of a commander of 
irregular cavalry — one of those men who, from sound 
judgment, high courage, skill in the use of weapons and 
intuitive knowledge of human nature, are fitted to be the 
eyes and ears of an army, or to plan and carry out a 
bold and dashing enterprise. His untimely death was a 
calamity to our country, and I mourned for him as for 
a brother." 

Seaton at once set about repairing the fort of Futty- 
gurh, had all the boats within twelve miles moored under 
the fort, and instructed the 82nd in gun -drill ; for the 
enemy threatened to bombard the fort from the farther 
bank of the river, which was at that point 1700 yards wide. 
Across the river was a small village. Seaton turned the 
people out for a couple of hours while he fired a few shots 
and took the range. 

Next day a native walked up to the brigadier's quarters 
with a 32-pound shot on his head, which he dropped at 
D 49 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

Seatons feet, saying, " Huzzoor, your Highness, cherisher 
of the poor, your slave was working in his fields yesterday, 
two miles away, and while the guns were firing, your slave 
heard something rushing through the grass, and at once 
this big ball jumped over his head and lodged in a bank. 
I am a faithful ryot of the Sircar Angrez, and I have 
brought the ball to your Highness." 

"Very well," said the brigadier, "you shall have a 
present ; but, tell me, do you think the rebels at Alagunge 
heard the sound of our guns ? " 

" Your Highness, yes ! their livers melted with fear, and 
half of their army ran away last night." 

Though the rebels did not dare to attack Futtygurh 
and Seaton's fort, yet they raided about and burnt many 
villages ; and at last they formed three strong posts along 
the river bank. 

Seaton felt it necessary to attack one of these, or the 
rebels might cross the Ganges and raise the whole country 
up to the Jumna, and when Sir Colin arrived at Futtygurh 
he would give the brigadier " a bit of his mind," 

Therefore Seaton resolved to attack Kunkur, the 
central post. Absolute secrecy was kept, and the amazed 
soldiers assembled at the bridge-head at 11 p.m. without 
sound of bugle. 

The hot and dusty road concealed the files ; at dawn 
they reached a walled grove of trees with low swampy 
ground on the right, and an old river-bed in front. A 
shot was fired, and then came shouts, hubbub, confusion. 

In a few minutes two splendid bodies of cavalry, well 
mounted, rode right and left to take Seaton in flank as he 
moved forward on the grove. 

"Major Smith, cover our advance, please, and bestow 
some favours on the cavalry to our right." 

The enemy's cavalry to the left had entered the dry 
river-bed, and, thinking themselves unseen, were riding 
leisurely to wait till the English flank was exposed. Riding 
up to Colonel Hall, Seaton desired him to draw out two 

50 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

companies of his best shots and try to disturb this Kttle 
manoeuvre. 

This was done : the musketry instructor gave the number 
of yards and before three calm and dehberate rounds had 
been completed, there was a terrible shaking amongst the 
spears in the river-bed ; the enemy ''s cavalry turned and 
bolted and were pursued by our horsemen, while the whole 
infantry line burst out into cheers and laughter. 

" Thisjwas the first time I had seen the Enfield rifle used 
in the field," says Seaton, " and I thought it the king of 
weapons." 

Major Smith meanwhile had persuaded the cavalry on 
the right to turn and escape : our troops charged the grove 
and the rebels fled in all directions, leaving their guns, 
stores, tents and baggage. 

As our men were eating a well-earned breakfast in the 
enemy's camp, SOO native horsemen rode up from Alagunge 
to see if their friends needed anything, for they had 
heard firing. 

Three or four well-planted shots from Major Smith's 
guns gave them all the information they required, and off 
they galloped, helter-skelter, for their fort. 

This day, the 7th of April, was Seaton's lucky day ; it 
was on this day sixteen years before that he had shared in 
the honour of defeating Akbar Khan and saving Jellalabad. 

Out and home had been 44 miles, done in twenty-two 
hours, fighting thrown in, and not a single straggler left 
behind ; the captured guns and stores were also brought 
safely in, and the rebels were so cowed that the two other 
forts were deserted, as well as Kunkur. 

When the brigade-major came in to Seaton's tent next 
day he was laughing. 

" Whafs the joke, major ? "" 

" Do you know, sir, what the soldiers are calling you ? " 

" No, I don't ; but I hope it is nothing very outrageous." 

" Oh no ; they are only calling you the Kunkuring 
hero ! " 

51 



SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B. 

Seaton's still weak health needed the tonic of a laugh ; 
this and the feeling that success brings helped to restore 
his wearied frame. 

Fourteen days after the Kunkur affair Sir Colin Campbell 
(Lord Clyde) arrived with his force, en route for his 
Rohilcund campaign. 

There was a kindly smile on his weather-beaten face as 
he shook his fist at Seaton and said, " So you must have 
your little flourish, sir." 

But the chief was glad enough to find his communications 
safe and the rebels driven off. Seaton and his chief had a 
few days' quiet conference, and the former writes : " I felt 
very much at home with Lord Clyde — there was something 
in his features, in the squareness of the lower jaw, in his 
occasional abruptness, that reminded me of my old com- 
mander, Sir Robert Sale. He was a thoroughly kind and 
warm-hearted man, rather peppery at times, like Sale, and 
in all cases of neglect of duty, very stern." 

General Penney came on the 24th of April to consult 
with his chief, and joining his force next day rode into a 
rebel battery and was killed by a discharge of grape. He 
had been misled by the civil officer, who had assured him 
that the enemy were miles away. 

General Penney had been a friend of Seaton's, a kind- 
hearted, generous and clever soldier ; he was sincerely 
lamented by his numerous friends. 

In May, as the brigadier sat alone in his tent, after Lord 
Clyde had left and taken away many of his friends, and 
when he was tired with copying telegrams for the chief of 
the staff, and wondering if it were not time for him to 
resign and rest his worn-out frame, a note was brought 
him addressed to Brigadier Sir Thomas Seaton, K.C.B., and 
congratulating him on the honour conferred. 

A rather cruel joke he felt it to be just then, and wrote 
back to the sender : " None of your nonsense ; if you boys 
chaff your brigadier, he'll have to pitch into you." 

The reply came again with a copy of the Gazette and 

52 



A SOLDIER OF THE COMPANY 

hearty congratulations. He was amazed to see his name 
— and the honour conferred. 

" My first thought was, God save the Queen ! she has 
not forgotten me ! the next, what will my wife and family 
think of it.?" 

Then he went back in thought to the day when he 
landed at Calcutta a thoughtless boy of sixteen, without 
a friend to take him by the hand, and he loved to trace a 
kind Providence in all his Indian career. In June 1859 
his resignation was accepted after a service of more than 
thirty-six years. 

Though he left India disgusted at the treachery of the 
sepoys, yet " time is a kindly god," as the Greek tragedian 
puts it ; and Sir Thomas lived to make allowances for their 
temptations. 

" Kind words," he says, " patience, good humour and 
courtesy are never thrown away upon them : if the English 
in India would make themselves sufficiently acquainted with 
the language of the natives so as to converse fluently and 
express themselves with elegance, and not in the barbarous 
jargon so commonly used ; if they would exercise more 
patience, forbearance and good temper ; if they would drop 
their proud superciliousness and haughty conduct — then 
their own manliness of character, their truthfulness and 
honesty of purpose would rapidly make way with the 
people, and they would soon be as much liked and respected 
as they are now hated and feared." 

Years have passed since this wise and generous hero 
penned these words, and the highest in our land has more 
than once visited his Indian subjects and friends. Let us 
hope that such proof of sympathy has not been in vain. 

From Cadet to Colonel. By kind permission of Messrs. Routledge. 



5^S 



CHAPTER III 

SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES, K.C.B., K.C.S.I. : 
THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

HOW many of England's heroes would be missing if 
we had maintained the celibacy of the clergy ! 
When human wisdom begins to improve upon 
Divine forethought, as the Roman Catholic Church has 
done in the matter of enforced celibacy, the result is not 
surprising. From Sir Herbert Edwardes to Cecil Rhodes 
there have been many men of heroic mould whose lives 
began in an English Rectory. 

Herbert Benjamin Edwardes was the second son of the 
Rector of Frodesley, a pretty village in Shropshire not far 
from the Caradoc hills and Shrewsbury. His grandfather 
was Sir John Cholmondeley Edwardes, eighth baronet of 
Shrewsbury. They were of Welsh descent, and connected 
with the ancient kings of Powysland. In the time of 
Henry vii., John-ap-David-ap-Madoc assumed the name of 
Edwardes : like so many other Welsh families they foolishly 
discarded their own poetic names for such names as Edwards 
and Jones. Herbert, born in 1819, lost his father at the 
age of four, and was sent to school at Richmond in Surrey, 
where he soon showed the grit in him by becoming the 
champion of all that were bullied or too weak to defend 
themselves. 

As a boy he was fond of a joke, quick in wit and ready 
in repartee, a writer of poetry and romance : he had been 
adopted by relatives, Mr. and Mrs. John Hope of Netley 
in Shropshire, where he used to pass his summer holidays. 
Here he was left much to solitude and his own thoughts 

54 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

and to reading, an education from within which serves to 
strengthen the will for the great conflict of life. 

In 1837 he was attending classes at King's College. His 
friend Cowley Powles writes : " Edwardes"* principal /br^^ lay 
in what would now be called the ' Modern Side.' In classics 
he did not distinguish himself, nor in mathematics : his 
taste was more for modern literature. At that he worked 
hard : he was then amongst the leaders of the college, and 
ill the Debating Society was one of the very foremost 
speakers." 

In those days he excelled in drawing caricatures, but in 
later life, as he grew more tolerant and tender, he gave up 
that habit ; because, he said, it led to dwelling on the weak- 
nesses or bad points of another, while he preferred to dwell 
on the good qualities of his neighbour. 

Amongst his friends at college were Charles Kingsley, 
Fitz- James Stephens, Nassau Senior and Benjamin Shaw, 
with whom he used to carry on wordy duels in their dusty 
lodgings. 

When some one advised him to take more sleep for the 
sake of his constitution, he replied, " Constitution indeed ! 
Life is nothing, time is nothing, but the things for which 
we live are all that is to be regarded." 

Edwardes wished to go to Oxford and study for the Bar, 
but his guardians did not approve of this, so he went at 
once to Sir Richard Jenkins, a member of the old Court of 
Directors of the East India Company and a friend of his 
father, and asked for a direct appointment to India. 

Sir Richard consented, and years after, when the fame 
of Herbert Edwardes in Bunnu came to England, Sir 
Richard wrote to a kinsman in Salop, " I congratulate you 
upon the high name young Edwardes has gained for himself 
by exploits so brilliant and so advantageous to his country. 
I feel much elated with the thought that I have been the 
means of placing such a man in the Company's service." 

In October 1840, Edwardes set sail for Calcutta, feeling 
all the sorrow of an exile, for he did not relish a mere 

55 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

soldier^s life. A fellow-passenger thus describes him : " His 
figure was slim and his general appearance gave the im- 
pression of delicate rather than robust health. He did not 
often join in the active games and amusements in which 
young men on board ship generally engage . . . the ex- 
pression of his face was bright and intelligent ... in 
amateur theatricals he was the leading spirit and was editor 
of a witty weekly newspaper." 

On arriving at Calcutta, Edwardes was appointed to the 
1st Bengal Fusiliers (since the Royal Munsters) and went 
by boat to Dinapur. An amusing letter to his friend 
Cowley thus describes the daily routine : " On the Ganges, 
March 1841. . . . Well, a black rascal makes an oration by 
my bed every morning about half an hour before daylight. 
I wake and see him salaaming with a cup of hot coffee in 
his hand. I sit in a chair and wash the teaspoon till the 
spoon is hot and the fluid cold, while he introduces me 
gradually into an ambush of pantaloons and Wellingtons. 
I am shut up in a red coat, and a glazed lid set upon my 
head, and thus carefully packed ride a couple of hundred 
yards to the parade. Here two or three hundred very cold 
people are assembled and we all agree to keep ourselves 
warm with a game of soldiers, and we wheel and turn about 
till the sun gets up to see what the row is about ; then, 
like frightened children, we all scamper off" for our home. 
If there be no parade, I take a gallop with my dogs : then 
comes breakfast, after which the intellectual day begins to 
dawn ; for from this till 4 or 5 p.m. your occupation must 
be among your books, pen, pencil, etc."" 

Edwardes employed much of this leisure in learning 
Hindostani and Persian ; in November 1845 he passed 
the " Interpreter's Examination.*' 

At Kurnal he caught fever and had to get " leave " and 
go to Simla : whence he writes, after explaining his many 
theatrical triumphs to amuse the men, " I know how it will 
all end, so write you this last letter — I shall be going to 
pieces like barley-sugar in a teacup, and be swabbed up 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

carefully and sent home to my afflicted relations in a 
pail." 

Edwardes had plenty of friends, for lie was the life and 
soul of every society in which he found himself. His chief 
pleasure was in showing kindness and sympathy to any who 
needed it, and many were the prayers that went up to bless 
him, even when he was only a subaltern. 

In 1845 he began to write for the Delhi Gazette a series 
of letters, called " the Brahminee Bull letters,'"" dealing 
critically with the mistakes and follies of the military events 
of the day. 

He was inwardly amused to hear them discussed at mess, 
pronounced to be written by some general who had long 
experience in the field. These letters were the first step to 
promotion : for Henry Lawrence, then resident at Nepaul, 
was deeply interested in them : he sought out the author 
and persuaded Sir Henry Hardinge to appoint him as one 
of his assistants at the Sikh Court of Lahore. 

But before he went to Lahore he saw, as aide-de-camp 
to Sir Hugh Gough, two victories won over the Sikhs, the 
battles of Moodkie and Sobraon. 

Lahore was the capital of the Sikh kingdom of the late 
Runjeet Singh : his heir, Dhuleep Singh, was a child, and the 
Queen Mother as Regent pretended to govern through her 
corrupt sirdars. 

Henry Lawrence, as Resident at this court, was surround- 
ing himself with a band of earnest and vigorous young men 
who should help him in his endeavour to guide the govern- 
ment and protect the oppressed. Amongst these assistants 
were John Nicholson, James Abbott, Reynell Taylor, Hodson, 
George Lawrence and other worthy men who did great 
things for India's good in the years to come. 

Out of these Henry Lawrence chose Edwardes as his 
private secretary : his opinion of his secretary was given 
after five months of close companionship : " Taking him all 
in all, bodily activity, mental cultivation and warmth of 
heart, I have not met his equal in India."" 

57 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

Herbert Edwardes had now found the work which he 
loved : heart and soul he threw himself into his chiefs 
chivalrous and philanthropic work — all in the highest 
interest of the natives. The Punjab had been misgoverned, 
and Lawrence was bent on steering the ship of State into 
less troubled waters. 

When at last annexation was found to be necessary, 
Lawrence became the President of a Board of three members 
appointed by the Governor-General, who was sent out by 
the Court of Directors and was more autocratic than our 
modern viceroys. 

So with Lawrence there was no " red tape,"" no acting 
according to law and rule ; but he sent out his assistants 
into wild districts, leaving it to their wisdom and discretion 
to settle the country and make the people happy. That 
was the early history of our Punjab. 

Thus, in February 1847, Edwardes was sent in command 
of a Sikh force to make an amicable settlement with the 
people of Bunnu, an Afghan valley west of the Indus, who 
had for twenty-five years failed to pay their annual tribute 
to Runjeet Singh, the "lion of the Punjab." How he 
succeeded in his bloodless conquest of these wild Mahommedan 
tribes Edwardes has described in A Year on the Punjab 
Frontier, and Ruskin has immortalised his deeds in A 
Kniglifs Faith : " I have asked you to hear this story, not 
that we may learn only how battles may be won, but that 
we may learn the happier lesson, how man may be won ; 
what affection there is to be had for the asking ; what 
truth for the trusting; what lifelong service for a word 
of love." 

But we cannot follow Edwardes in this enterprise, nor 
in his services in saving Multan, for which he was made 
by the Queen a C.B. Little did England then know how 
important Edwardes"" services had been : we may say that 
he and John Lawrence were the chief agents in rendering 
the Punjab loyal and true to us when the Mutiny broke 
out. His brave and generous nature made the natives 

58 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

love him ; his confidence in them bred confidence in return ; 
and when the storm of revolt surged about Peshawur, and 
Edwardes and Nicholson called for levies to fill the place 
of disarmed mutineers, readily the faithful wild men sprang 
up to answer to the call, and joyfully they marched to help 
us in the siege of Delhi. 

Edwardes had gone through great exposure in the 
summer heat and had defeated the traitor Moolraj in two 
pitched battles ; he had had many hairbreadth escapes 
in battle and from assassination ; a price had been set on 
his head, and his servants had been bribed to poison him. 
An attack of fever made a change of climate necessary, 
so in the close of 1849 Edwardes left Lahore with John 
Nicholson and the two little girls of John Lawrence and 
dropped down the Indus in boats to Bombay, stopping 
every night to give the children a run on the sandy shore. 
In that long boat journey the two heroes cemented a 
friendship already begun, and from papers left it is clear 
they discussed the coming storm of revolt and the con- 
spiracy that occurred in 1857. The Commander-in-Chief, 
Lord Gough, was going home in the same steamer to 
England, and as Edwardes stood on the paddle-box 
watching his countrymen cheer his Chief, he was surprised 
to hear, " Edwardes, come down ; you are called for."" 

The people on the English shore were cheering the hero 
of Bunnoo ! 

His modesty comes out again a few weeks later, when 
he was being feted at the Mansion House and was returning 
thanks in the presence of the Duke of Wellington and other 
distinguished officers. For, turning to his friend John 
Nicholson seated at his side, he said, " Here, gentlemen, 
here is the real author of half the exploits which the 
world has been so ready to attribute to me." The eflect 
on the company was almost electrical ; they felt that if 
Edwardes was extolling the bravery of his friend, he was 
unconsciously revealing his own moral greatness : they were 
all deeply moved. The Duke said it was impossible to 

59 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

speak too highly of that young officer Major Herbert 
Edwardes ; and the Court of Directors had a special gold 
medal struck and presented to Edwardes in full Court. 

In July 1850, Edwardes married Emma Sidney, the 
daughter of James Sidney, Esq. of Richmond Hill, and he 
finished his book on the Frontier in happy months of peace 
and quiet at Festiniog in North Wales. 

In March 1851, Edwardes and his ^ife returned to 
India : he was soon appointed Deputy-Commissioner of 
Jalandur, a fertile and beautiful country, and here the 
people soon felt the power of his sympathy and justice. 
It was their first home together : fifteen months spent in 
a charming house with a large garden full of orange trees 
and flowers, with congenial work, protecting the weak and 
punishing the oppressor — these soon sped by ; for they 
were startled at breakfast one morning by a letter from 
Lord Dalhousie ordering Edwardes to take charge of 
Hazara, a wild hill country near the frontier of Cashmere. 

In ten days they had to start, after selling house and 
furniture, and in their new abode there was no house and 
an Englishwoman had never been seen there before. The 
Commissioner much regretted his departure : " It is not 
his ability that I admire so much as his weight of character, 
high tone and principles. There is not a corner of the 
district where his impress has not been already felt — I 
grieve over his departure more than I can tell." 

Rice fields four thousand feet above sea-level sounded 
healthy, while in the hedges grew wild roses, oleander, 
clematis and blackberries. 

One Sikh regiment with four officers, two of whom 
were married, formed the whole society of the place ; but 
sorrow and trouble came to them. The Sikhs on being 
ordered to build their own huts, refused ; they were not 
coolies, they said. This looked like mutiny, and the 
Government called for a court-martial upon the commanding 
officer. He was only twenty-seven, and, fearing disgrace, 
shot himself, leaving a young wife and two little children. 

60 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

Next, the medical officer, Dr. Keith, died of fever : his 
intended bride in Scotland was then preparing to join him, 
and the news of his death only just came in time to stop 
her. 

The Sikhs were ashamed of what they had done, and 
began to build their huts before the new commander arrived. 

In October 1853 the news came that Edwardes' com- 
missioner, Colonel Mackeson, had been assassinated at 
Peshawur, as he was hearing appeals in the verandah of his 
house. For a very devout man, to all appearances, had 
spread his carpet near the commissioner's house, and had 
engaged in devotions through the day. Towards evening 
he went up and presented a petition : as Colonel Mackeson 
raised his arm to receive it, the fanatic stabbed him through 
the chest. As Peshawur was full of armed Afghans, the 
excitement was great ; officers slept with their boots on, 
ready for an immediate call, and the Europeans felt as 
though they were living on the verge of a volcano. 

In a few days Edwardes received a letter from Lord 
Dalhousie, offering him the commissionership of Peshawur. 
" In the whole range of Indian charges, I know none which 
at the present time is more arduous — holding it, you hold 
the outpost of Indian Empire . . . you have a fine career 
before you. God speed you in it ; both for your own sake 
and for the sake of this Empire." 

Edwardes began by putting down the spies formerly 
employed and trusted the chiefs of the wild tribes, warning 
them that swift punishment would be meted out to 
marauders and disturbers of the peace. 

Whenever a plundering party raided the district, 
Edwardes barred the whole tribe from dealing at the 
Peshawur market until restitution was made : by this means 
he got the feeling of the tribe against all marauders, for 
plundering did not pay. 

His next stroke of policy was to bring about a friendly 
feeling with Cabul, and to get a treaty signed with the 
Ameer. 

61 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

He wrote to Lord Dalhousie on the subject, and re- 
ceived in his reply these words : " I give you carte hlanche^ 
and if you can only bring about such a result as you propose, 
it will be a feather even in your cap." 

This treaty took a long time to negotiate, but with his 
wonted patience, wisdom and kindness, Edwardes won over 
Dost Mohamed and his chiefs to sending his son and heir to 
sign the treaty. 

Sir John Lawrence, the chief commissioner at Lahore, 
wrote to Edwardes : "I so far agree with the Governor- 
General that I think all the merit of the affair, whatever it 
may be, is yours." 

General Monro asserted : " Often have I been told by 
Khans and Afghans that we should never have kept 
Peshawur (and with it the Punjab) without Edwardes. 
They would say, ' Yes, yes, Nicholson was undoubtedly a 
great man, but he would not have kept us true to govern- 
ment. He was so stern ; we feared him, but we did not 
love him. Edwardes compelled us to like him better than 
any other Feringhee.' " 

This treaty was signed first in March 1855 and sub- 
sequently consolidated under Lord Canning on 26th January 
1857. 

To the honour of Dost Mohamed Khan we must record 
that all through the Sepoy war he remained true to the 
treaty, and abstained under great temptations from raising 
the green flag of Islam and marching with his wild legions 
into the Punjab. 

Had he done so, it is doubtful if we could have kept 
India. Such power had the moral force of Edwardes to 
stay the great mutiny ! 

In February 1856, John Nicholson, who had been holding 
the post of deputy-commissioner at Bunnu, had had some 
differences with Sir John Lawrence, and, feeling himself 
aggrieved, had asked to be removed. 

" I only knocked down the walls of the Bunnu forts," 
wrote Edwardes. "John Nicholson has since reduced the 

6a 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

people to such a state of good order and respect for the laws 
that, in the last year of his charge, not only was there no 
murder or burglary, but not an attempt at any such crime." 

So strongly did some of these wild men admire Nicholson's 
prowess that a brotherhood of fakirs in Hazara established 
a worship of his genius. Often they fell at his feet as their 
guru, or religious teacher, and though Nicholson flogged 
them soundly for doing it they remained as devoted as ever, 
and at his death some of them pined away and died. 

After having the charge of Cashmere for six months 
Nicholson was sent to Peshawur as deputy-commissioner, 
and the two friends once more were together, sympathising 
in each other's views and working in accord. 

In March 1857, Edwardes had to take his sick wife to 
Calcutta for England : he took advantage of this to com- 
mend Nicholson to the notice of Lord Canning. " If your 
lordship ever has a thing of real difficulty to be done, I 
would answer for it, John Nicholson is the man to do it." 

Whilst Edwardes was in Calcutta, conferring with the 
Governor-General on frontier questions, the first signs of 
the Mutiny appeared — the disbanding of the 19th N.I. 
at Barrackpur. 

On his way back to the north-west Edwardes visited his 
spiritual father and friend, Sir Henry Lawrence, at Luck- 
now. He wrote home to his wife : " Sir Henry is happy in 
this new appointment : ... he comes in as a peacemaker 
and is already winning golden opinions among the nobles 
and people by his kindness and sympathy : . . . this morning 
he read a chapter of the Bible to his nephew George and 
me : then he prayed with great earnestness. He laid great 
stress on, ' Enable us to live in love with many and charity 
to all.' I left Lucknow with regret." 

The two friends never met again ; for Sir Henry was 
sent to Oude too late to undo the mischief already 
made. 

On 11th May the telegraph brought the news to 
Peshawur that sepoys had mutinied, killed European officers^ 

m 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

and ffone to Delhi. Edwardes advised Sir John Lawrence, 
by wire, to collect a movable column in order to march on 
any disaffected station and put down revolt with the bayonet. 
Sir John had not yet awoke to the danger of the revolt and 
did not wish any new troops to be raised ! " We are amply 
strong enough in the Punjab," he writes, " to put down all 
mischief." 

But General Reed, Brigadier Cotton, Herbert Edwardes 
and John Nicholson were alive and prompt to make ready ; 
and orders were issued for the assembly of a field force of 
irregular troops to march anywhere : the Guide Corps too 
under Captain Daly made surprising efforts. Neville 
Chamberlain went down, at their request, to see Sir John, 
for already time was being lost ; but Sir John summoned 
Edwardes down to Rawul Pindee, where he stayed two 
days. After this friendly meeting Lawrence opposed the 
raising of levies no more, and indeed became most eager to 
sanction any number. 

We may be surprised to find that it w^as the gentle, 
peace-loving Edwardes who first rose to the height of 
daring resistance, while the iron- willed and colder chief 
commissioner needed spurring on. The time lost had 
operated in discouraging the chiefs in sending in levies of 
horse and foot for the purpose of overawing the dis- 
affected Hindoos : for news soon came that the Delhi 
mag-azine had fallen into the hands of the mutineers, and 
that four guns had been captured and awful atrocities 
committed on all Europeans, male and female. 

Edwardes and his friends in the Punjab were aghast at 
the failure of the Meerut division to strike a blow, and at 
the delay of the commander-in-chief at Umballa. " Lord 
Lake would have been at the gates of Delhi by this time, 
and the recreant mutineers swimming the Jumna for their 
lives." 

Suddenly in the night came an express to Peshawur 
announcing that the 55th Native Infantry, on duty at 
Nowshera, thirty miles away, were in open mutiny, and all 

64 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

the women and children of the 27th Queen's Regiment 
were at the mercy of the sepoys. 

But there was another Mutiny hero up and doing : 
Lieutenant Alexander Taylor of the Engineers cut away 
the bridge of boats, and thus prevented the 55th Native 
Infantry from joining the rest of the mutineers. 

" We must disarm the whole of the native troops," said 
Edwardes. 

The commanding officers were summoned and a painful 
scene followed : for they one and all protested their men 
were faithful. 

But Nicholson and Edwardes had persuaded General 
Cotton over to their views, and he settled the question by 
saying, " Gentlemen, no more discussion. These are my 
orders, and I must have them obeyed." 

The militar}! council had lasted till 6 a.m., and at 7 a.m. 
the two regiments of European Infantry, the 70th and 87th, 
with guns, were ready on parade to enforce the command 
given to the sepoys, " Lay down your arms ! " 

They glanced at the guns and the stern white faces, 
and obeyed without a word. To their officers it was a most 
affecting sight to see their men putting their firelocks into 
the artillery waggons : some of the cavalry officers threw 
in their own swords with those of their men, and even tore 
off their spurs. But the good result was instantaneous. 
On the return from the disarming parade hundreds of 
Khans who had stood aloof the day before, watching which 
way the cat would jump, now offered their service: but 
their services were not wanted so much now, and they were 
treated rather coldly. 

The sepoy regiments were in revolt, but the people of 
India — the patient, industrious millions — never stirred ! 
and yet foreigners have asserted that the English rule in 
India was oppressive. 

When we went to India we found the Hindoos being 
oppressed by the Mahommedans : we put down the oppressor 
and tolerated both. The Hindoo was deceived into be- 
E 65 



SIR HERBEUT B. EDWARDES 

lieving that his rehgion was being menaced by us : but so 
soon as he saw a Mahommedan king set up in Delhi he knew 
that the hour of persecution would strike again. 

Nicholson set off to bring the 55th Regiment, at Murdan, 
to order. When his column came in sight of the fort, all 
but a hundred and twenty men had mutinied and gone off 
towards Swat. 

Colonel Spottiswood, their commander, had blown his 
brains out with a pistol : for he had known and loved his 
men many years. 

The mutineers were pursued, after the fort had been 
secured ; but only the cavalry could hope to catch them. 

Nicholson on his big grey charger rode in front, was 
twenty hours in the saddle and rode seventy miles. Here 
and there the cavalry hunting the enemy in villages and 
ravines overtook desperate parties of mutineers, of whom 
a hundred were killed, a hundred and fifty taken prisoners, 
and about four hundred got clear away into the hills : the 
regimental colours were also recovered. 

The news came to Peshawur on 19th June tbat Gei>eTal 
Anson was dead, and General Reid had succeeded to the 
command-in- chief. But he had only half as many men and 
guns as the enemy, and succour could not arrive from home 
for three months or more. 

Fortunately Dost Mahomed Khan was true to his 
friendship and treaty of peace, and the chiefs of all the hill 
tribes were eager to send levies : if we had been on bad 
terms with Cabul, we must have lost all the Punjab, and 
in all probability India would have gone too. 

And we must remember that it was Herbert Edwardes 
who won over the Ameer. One day while Edwardes sat in 
his study, busy with reports and orders and letters, one of 
his men ran in and cried, " O Sahib, armed hill men are 
coming into the cantonment and calling out for your house."" 
And Edwardes looked and saw nearly three hundred 
Afreedees, laden with arms of all sorts and sizes, and asking 
to be enlisted as regular soldiers. They were mostly 

66 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

outlaws who had done evil deeds and had taken to the hills 
to escape English justice : they doubtless thought that now 
was the time to clear off old scores, and get reward instead 
of punishment. Edwardes made them sit down on the 
lawn and seated himself in their midst : then he ordered his 
moonshea to bring out the records. Each man who had 
done a wrong or injury was adjudged to pay a fine to the 
injured party before he was allowed to put his name down 
as a recruit. 

" What a scene it was ! " says Edwardes : " it might 
have been an ambush as easily as anything else. They 
might have cut me in pieces and dispersed themselves 
immediately . . . but the great secret of association with 
these utter barbarians is to take them as they come, like 
wild beasts, and show no fear of them. Habit has taught 
me this : so I went among them and picked out their young 
men and enrolled them as recruits : then I brought the 
older men into our willow- walk in the garden, set them 
down in the shade, and after a good talk dismissed them 
to their hills again with a rupee each, quite satisfied that 
they had been honourably treated." 

In June, Nicholson started for Delhi, and on his way 
visited Sir John Lawrence and urged upon him the 
advisability of holding the frontier of Peshawur. Edwardes 
himself had told the chief commissioner that if the order 
to retreat came from Lahore he should resign his post at 
once, and inform Lord Canning of his reasons : so strongly 
did he feel that disaster must follow the abandonment of 
Peshawur. Meanwhile 700 Multanee horse and foot, volun- 
tary levies, were being fitted out to reinforce Nicholson. 
These men had fought against us in the war of 1848, 
and had been liberally treated after their defeat : that 
liberality now brought in its reward — in the alacrity with 
which they rushed to our assistance. On 6th August, Sir 
John Lawrence telegraphed to Edwardes : " My brother 
Henry was wounded on 2nd July, and died two days 
afterwards." In his letter to his wife Edwardes writes : — 

67 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

" We have really lost our dearest friend, and India her 
greatest public servant. What a blow it is ! it is like a 
good king dying. What a number of hearts loved him, 
at home and here, black as well as white. He was our 
master, friend, example, all in one ; a father to us in the 
great earnest public life to which he led us forth ... for 
him, dear fellow, we happily have no grief. Trials and 
mercies, storm and sun, had ripened him for a better 
world, and poured that drop of the love of Christ into 
his heart which hallows the love of our neighbour." 

And in a letter to Nicholson, commenting on the fine 
spirit in which Sir Henry Lawrence bore his dismissal from 
Lahore in favour of his younger brother, Edwardes writes : — 

" Cruelly was he removed from the Punjab, which was 
his public life's stage. But he was equal to the trial : his 
last act at Lahore was to kneel down, with his dear wife, 
and pray for the success of John's work . . . nothing but 
Christian feeling could have given them the victory of that 
prayer. ""^ 

And in reply Nicholson wrote : " If it please Provi- 
dence that I live through this business, you must get 
me alongside of you again, and be my guide and help in 
endeavouring to follow dear Sir Henry's example ; for I 
am so weak and unstable that I shall never do any good 
of myself." So wrote the "Tower of Strength," John 
Nicholson, the leader of the wildest men in Asia, the 
hope of all the British forces round Delhi ! He clung 
to Herbert Edwardes spiritually, as a child to his mother ! 

It was very trying to Edwardes to have to stay at 
Peshawur collecting levies, disarming traitors, and arming 
the faithful for the conflict, while his greatest friends were 
risking their lives in the struggle. But no less was he 
working for the crushing of the Mutiny, almost exhausting 
the Punjab of troops in order to strengthen the Delhi force. 

Nicholson wrote to Edwardes : " Delhi, 12th August 
\S57. — I came into Wilson's camp ahead of my own column 
by mail-cart from Umballa and spent three days there, 

68 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

looking over our position." Of the camp at Delhi he says : 
" Our position is a perfectly providential one . . . the Ridge 
with the strong buildings on it in front, and the river and 
canal protecting our flanks and rear, has saved us." 

Nicholson with his movable column had fought on his 
way to Delhi, and crushed whatever force he attacked ; he 
had destroyed the Sealkote mutineers and taken their guns ; 
then, arrived at Delhi, he had gone round quietly and 
unbeknown to examine daily every battery, breastwork, 
and post : often at night he would ride round the outer 
line of sentries, to see if the men were on the alert. He 
did not forget his wounded friends, but visited them, or 
escorted them when convalescent. " No woman could have 
shown more consideration," wrote Sir Neville Chamberlain. 

In October, Edwardes heard that Agra had been relieved. 
For after the capture of Delhi, General Wilson dispatched 
a corps of 2800 men, under the command of Colonel 
Edward Greathed of the 5th Foot, to open the country 
between Delhi and Agra. 

Greathed started on the 24th of September in a south- 
east direction and punished where he found the natives had 
committed atrocities. 

He took Bulanshahr and Malagarh. In the latter he 
had the misfortune to lose, by an accident. Lieutenant 
Home of the Engineers, one of the survivors of the gallant 
officers who had blown up the Kashmir gate at Delhi. On 
reaching the next town, Khurja, the fury of the troops was 
roused by the sight of a skeleton stuck up on the roadside 
for all to see — the medical officers pronounced it to be the 
skeleton of a European female. There was a cry for instant 
vengeance, but the civil officer accompanying the force con- 
trived to calm the troops and spare the city. 

When forty-eight miles from Agra, Greathed received a 
letter from the authorities at Agra imploring help. He 
therefore sent off that night of the 9th October, the cavalry 
and horse artillery, and four hours later followed with the 
infantry, mounting his men on elephants, carts, and camels. 

69 



SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES 

Pushing on rapidly, he crossed the bridge of boats under 
the walls of the fort at sunrise on the 10th and encamped 
on the parade-ground. It was a spacious grassy plain having 
some high crops about 800 yards distant. The camp 
was pitched, the horses picketed, and the men threw off 
their accoutrements and betook themselves to breakfast. 

Greathed had been informed that the rebels were ten 
miles away, so few precautions were taken. He did not 
know they were lying hidden in the tall crops close at hand. 

Presently four of them, dressed as conjurers, came 
strolling up to the advanced guard of the 9th Lancers. 
They were ordered off by the sergeant in charge of the 
post, whereupon one of them drew his tulwar and cut 
him down ; the others gave a signal to their men in the 
crops, and while the troopers w^ere running to dispatch 
them, round shot came pouring in. Our soldiers needed 
no further alarm : they turned out at once, but the rebel 
cavalry now started up as if by magic and charged the 
guns, sabring the gunners of one gun, when a squadron of 
the 9th Lancers dashed on them and drove them back in 
disorder. But French, who led the Lancers, was killed, 
and Jones, his subaltern, was dangerously wounded. 

Still, this gave Greathed time to deploy his line, 
covered by a battery of Eurasian soldiers under Pearson, 
which rendered excellent service. The sudden transforma- 
tion of a sleeping mass of men into an organised army 
scared the rebels, and they fled to their camp seven miles 
away. They were pursued by horse and guns to the river ; 
thirteen guns and vast quantities of waggons full of ammuni- 
tion were brought back. The weary victors had done over 
sixty miles in thirty-six hours before this battle ; so splendidly 
was Agra saved and law and order once more established. 

Edwardes at Peshawur heard the news with a feeling 
of relief. " By God's mercy," he writes in his diary, " Delhi, 
Agra, and Lucknow are recovered, and it only remains 
to settle the country." 

We have chosen this Christian knight as a hero of 

70 



THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 

the Mutiny, because it was primarily owing to him that 
the Mutiny was crushed. Edwardes made the Afghans 
our friends, and so rendered the Punjab secure and able 
to send all its troops down to Delhi. 

Men in India understood this, but away in England 
his services were for a long time overlooked. 

Lumsden wrote from Candahar in January 1859 : — 

"The honours have begun to come out, but where is 
So-and-so.? . . . Will England never learn to recognise 
the right men ? Taylor took Delhi ; and some people we 
know saved the Punjab." 

Edwardes was one of those men who cannot push them- 
selves to the front, and who out of modesty keep silent 
about their own merits. Such men are apt to be over- 
looked by the distributors of honours. 

It was not until 1860 that Edwardes received the 
honour of knighthood, K.C.B., for his services. In January 
1862, Sir Herbert and his wife again set sail for India 
to take up his new appointment of Commissioner of 
Umballa, whence he returned in 1865. They were both 
worn out with work and anxiety, and when Lady Edwardes 
told the doctors she was strong enough to stay on in 
India for his sake, they replied : " If you wish Sir Herbert 
not to go home on your account, you must go with him 
on his own, for he needs rest as much as you do." 

Sir Herbert passed away on 23rd December 1868, towards 
midnight. Among his last words were : " I am quite happy. 
I love God : I trust entirely to Jesus : I put full confidence 
in Jesus, and I couldn't do more if I lived a thousand years." 

A monument was placed in Westminster Abbey to his 
memory by the Indian Secretary of State and Council : 
it is close to that of Warren Hastings, and all that was 
mortal of him was laid in the Highgate Cemetery. 

The " Edwardes Gateway " at Peshawur and the well- 
fountain at Bunnu,now called Edwardes-a-bad, commemorate 
his services in India. 

By kind permission of Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co. 

71 



CHAPTER IV 

HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE— THE PRINCE 

OF SCOUTS 

OF all the heroes of the Indian Mutiny, Hodson won 
for himself the brightest and the most short-lived 
fame. In the midst of a brilliant career of soldierly 
daring he committed one act which has been regarded 
from different points of view : as necessary severity, or cold- 
blooded retribution. 

We shall see later what was the ambiguous deed which 
Hodson committed : but lest this preface should prejudice 
any reader against our hero, let us hasten to assert that 
few men had warmer and nobler friends and stouter 
admirers than Brevet-Major William S. R. Hodson. Like 
Sir Herbert Edwardes, he was the son of a country rector, 
who lived at Maisemore Court, near the Severn, to the 
north of Gloucester. William Hodson''s father, a Canon 
of Lichfield, had been seventh Wrangler and second 
Chancellor's Medallist : his mother. May Stephen, be- 
longed to a family of lawyers, intimate with Wilberforce 
and Macaulay. 

Born in 1821, he grew up a shapely, slim lad with frank 
blue eyes and yellow hair : being troubled with headaches, 
he pursued his early studies at home under his father, 
and learnt by long country walks and runs to observe 
keenly and love wild nature. 

At fifteen he was sent to Rugby, being older than most 
boys at entrance : his good teaching secured him a place 
in the middle fifth, so that he escaped fagging, and in two 
years was placed in the sixth form under Arnold. 

72 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

Though an athlete Hodson never cared for cricket, 
but he was the best long-distance runner in the school, 
and excelled in the gymnasium. 

He was a good hand at keeping order, and when 
Cotton's house was growing unruly from lack of pragposters, 
Arnold transferred Hodson from Price''s house to Cotton's 
— in a week all disorder ceased ! 

Thomas Arnold writes : " His expansive and impulsive 
temper won him many friends, and for my own part I 
always liked him greatly. His faults were arrogance, 
rashness, and a domineering temper ; if one bears this in 
mind, it is easy to understand the errors into which he fell 
in India." 

In October 1840, William Hodson entered Trinity 
College, Cambridge, and took up boating, rowing in the 
2nd Trinity boat, while he did not neglect his studies. 
By the time Hodson took his degree he was too old 
to get an Indian cadetship : but obtained a commission in 
the Guernsey Militia from General Sir William Napier, then 
Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey and the historian of the 
Peninsular War. On leaving Guernsey, Sir William wrote 
him a flattering testimonial, in which he remarked : " I 
think you will be an acquisition to any service." By 
passing thus through the militia, Hodson was enabled 
to obtain a cadetship, offered by Sir Robert Inglis, on 
the Bengal Establishment. On the voyage to Calcutta 
Hodson was deeply grieved at losing his dog : the poor 
little creature had been shut up during a gale, and on 
again seeing his master was so overjoyed that he fell into 
convulsions and died. Hodson was a great lover of animals ; 
dogs and cats instinctively clung to him for love and 
protection. 

After staying three weeks with the Chief Justice of 
Bengal at Garden Reach, a pretty suburb by the river- 
side, Hodson went by river towards Agra, to join a native 
regiment, 2nd Bengal Grenadiers, which was to form part 
of Sir Henry Hardinge's escort from Agra to Ferozepur. 

73 



^ HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

At Agra he was the guest of the Lieutenant-Governor, James 
Thomason, a friend of his father, who from that time 
treated Hodson as a son. 

Thomason gave Hodson a horse, which carried him 
many a march, from 4 a.m. to sunset, with a rest in the 
hot hours. During the Mutiny he grieved over the wounds 
of his charger as of his dearest friend. 

The officers used to ride before the band, and frequently 
Hodson would dismount in the cold dawn and run seven 
or eight miles to keep himself warm. 

At Umballa he saw 12,000 of the finest troops drawn 
up in one line: the Sikh army of the Khalsa, or chosen, 
were encamped round Lahore, clamouring for their pay and 
threatening to cross the river Sutlej and plunder Hindostan. 
Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief, was preparing to 
meet these warriors. 

Hodson's first battle, Mudki, was fought after a fasting 
march of twenty-five miles : he was grazed in the cheek by a 
ball fired by one of his own sepoys, who stood behind him. 
In the battles fought against the Sikhs the sepoys often 
refused to face the grape, and only the British regiments 
stood firm. After four days' fighting, and nights spent on 
the ground in great cold, they got a rest and some real 
food, and water flavoured with gunpowder ! 

Infantry attacking guns — that was his first ordeal of 
war, and the enemy were the proudest and bravest fighting 
race in the East. In sixty days the Sikh army was over- 
thrown. " I had the pleasure,"' Hodson writes to his sister, 
" of spiking two guns ; and once more I have escaped, I am 
thankful to say, unhurt, except that a bullet took a fancy 
to my little finger and cut the skin off the top, and spoilt a 
buckskin glove." 

The Sikh loss at Sobraon, the decisive victory, was some 
8000 killed and wounded, while our loss was some 2500 
killed and wounded. 

When England was ringing joy-bells to welcome the 
glad tidings of great victories, Hodson was writing letters 

74 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

in criticism of his superior officers. He says : " Will it be 
believed that a large proportion of our losses was caused by 
our own regiments being so badly handled that they fired 
upon one another incessantly ! My own regiment received 
a volley from behind as we advanced ! The 1st Europeans 
fell before our eyes in numbers by a volley from our own 
45th Sepoys." 

His opinion of the native regiments was given to his 
friend Thomason at Agra: he found the discipline bad, 
and the native officers were more troublesome than the 
men. In disgust he asked to be transferred to a European 
regiment, the 1st Fusiliers ; war had decimated them, but 
they had covered themselves with glory. 

In August 1846, Hodson went to Simla to spend a week 
with Sir Henry Lawrence. He stayed a month and enjoyed 
a friendship with that good and great man which lasted all 
his hfe. Sir Henry wrote : " I have seldom met so promising 
a young fellow : I get a good deal of help from him ; he 
works willingly and sensibly." 

In October, Sir Henry invited Hodson to come with him 
to Cashmere. A motley army went with them, composed of 
stalwart Sikhs in small blue turbans and giant Afghans 
with voluminous headgear, Brahmins and Gurkhas — all bent 
on frightening the men of Cashmere into submission to 
Gulab Singh, whom we had placed over them for a large 
concession ! This maharaja, with all his engaging person- 
ality and gentlemanly manner, had a habit of skinning his 
personal enemies alive ! 

When accused of having flayed 12,000 men, he rephed 
indignantly: "It is no such thing: I have only skinned 
three — what ! well, it might have been three hundred, if 
you count every little rascal." 

Resistance melted before the approaching army, and 
Hodson had an opportunity of admiring the lovely glens 
and woods and rocks. The women of Cashmere, Hodson 
describes as a wretched set, only good for beasts of burden, 
dirty, and atrociously ugly. 

75 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

In the spring of 1847 Hodson was superintending the 
building of an asylum founded by Sir H. Lawrence for the 
children of our soldiers among the pines of Himalaya. He 
had to learn how to cut down trees and make planks, doors, 
and windows ; how to quarry rocks and make bricks — and 
then teach all this to his 600 native workmen. 

He liked the work, because it was to rescue the soldier's 
child from an infancy of contamination and ignorance, and 
perhaps from an early death. And yet this was the young 
Englishman whom some moralists pronounced more un- 
feeling than the dissolute princes of Delhi ! 

Sir Henry had lately formed a new and splendid corps 
— the Guides — he now asked Hodson to accept the adjut- 
ancy of this regiment. As first raised it consisted of one 
troop of horse and two companies of foot, and was placed 
under Lieutenant H. Lumsden, afterwards Sir Harry 
Lumsden. Amongst the men enlisted were old Sikh 
soldiers, Pathans, and Hindostanee soldiers who had served 
with the Sikhs. 

The object of this corps was to train men in peace to be 
efficient in war : to know all roads, rivers, hills, ferries, and 
passes, and to give accurate information of what their neigh- 
bours were thinking of doing. In addition to all this work, 
Hodson was still kept on the staff at Lahore, and worked in 
Sir Henry Lawrence's office. " He has been a brother to me 
ever since I knew him,"" writes Hodson. 

But in November 1847 Henry Lawrence had to go to 
England on sick leave for two years, and the friends were 
parted. 

Among those who rejoiced at Hodson's appointment 
to the Guides was Herbert Edwardes, who wrote home : " I 
think Hodson will do it justice : he is one of the finest 
young fellows I know, and a thorough soldier in his heart." 

One of Hodson's functions was to stop plundering and 
detect the plunderers : many cases of robbery did he unravel 
by sending out clever natives, disguised as fakirs, or religious 
beggars, to talk to the people in their villages. It was 

76 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

astonishing how he picked up cases of cruelty and violence ; 
the Sikhs seemed quite indifferent to murder, but were 
horrified at the idea of shutting up a sacred ox who had 
gored his thirteenth man in two days ! So venerable a 
beast, they said, should have fair play. 

In 1848 the second Sikh War and the siege of Multan 
occupied Edwardes, and the Guides distinguished themselves 
by courage and Hodson by strategy : the latter received the 
special thanks of General Wheeler, not only for his services 
in the field, but for the information which he collected for 
him. 

In a letter home Hodson describes one of his little 
affairs — one bold hill-man had beaten off four sowars 
(troopers) one after another. He then rushed at Hodson 
like a tiger, and closed with him, yelling, " Wah guru-ke- 
jai," and wielding his tulwar fiercely. " I guarded the three 
or four first blows, but he pressed so closely to my horse's 
rein that I could not get a fair cut in return. At length I 
pressed in my turn so sharply upon him that he missed his 
blow, and I caught his tulwar with my bridle-hand, wrenched 
it from him and cut him down with the right, having re- 
ceived no further injury than a severe cut across the 
fingers." 

From the time that Hodson got promotion in the 
Guides jealousy began to whisper tales of evil against him. 
Hodson's plain speaking offended the older officers — for he 
inveighed against promotion by seniority (or senility) ; all 
elasticity, he said, was gone when men became colonels ; all 
energy and enterprise was worn out. One cavalry com- 
mander at Chilianwala could not mount his horse unaided. 
A brigadier of infantry was so blind he could not see his 
regiment until his horse's nose touched the bayonets, and 
even then he asked plaintively, " Pray, which way are the 
men facing, Mr. Hodson ? " 

Three days Hodson spent on civil duty in Sir Charles 
Napier's camp ; a man of iron, but most kind and cordial to 
the young adjutant. "I only trust he will remain with us 

77 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

as long as his health lasts, and endeavour to rouse the army 
from its present state of slack discipline," writes Hodson. 

At the close of 1851 Hodson went down to Calcutta to 
meet the lady he was to marry, the widow of John Mitford. 
The wedding took place privately in the cathedral, and, 
after a visit to Mr. Thomason at Agra, Hodson had to leave 
his bride at Umballa. For he was obliged to make his way 
to Ludhiana, " to try a lot of gentlemen who had devoted 
their youthful energies to strangling their neighbours by 
the simple art of Thuggi." 

In September, Lumsden went to England, and the 
Governor-General gave Hodson the command of the Guides 
— the most honourable and arduous command on the frontier, 
one that Hodson had long coveted. An expedition among 
the wild tribes of the Hazara gave him an opportunity of 
showing how he could handle his men in mountain warfare. 

In February 1853, Sir Henry Lawrence was removed from 
the Punjab, and Hodson lost a good, sincere friend. 

In 1853 it was bruited about that Hodson was very un- 
popular with his regiment and with military men generally ; 
but Sir Richard Temple said he had marvellously attached 
the Guides to himself by the ties of mutual honour, daring, 
and devotion. But there is no doubt that this young 
soldier, who took war so seriously and scientifically, 
began to be disliked by the slow-moving men of the old 
school. 

One of his bitterest enemies was his own adjutant, Turner, 
who was transferred in 1854 from the Guides to a regiment 
of Punjab Cavalry. 

Hodson's chief commissioner, John Lawrence, must have 
heard stories to his discredit ; for he wrote to Hodson and 
stated that neither the European nor the native officers 
were contented under his command. 

Hodson had taken great pains to discover the men who 
had plotted the murder of Mackeson ; he had seized and 
imprisoned a border chief named Khadar Khan, for it was 
one of his servants who dealt the blow. This prisoner was 

78 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

acquitted, but Hodson still believed him guilty. Major 
Edwardes reported the case to Lord Dalhousie as one of 
wrongful imprisonment. Soon after, the Court of Directors 
decreed that Hodson should never again be employed in 
any civil capacity. 

Fools may make mistakes, but if a genius trips every 
dullard is eager to hound him down and impute low motives. 

Turner had been going about saying that Hodson had 
falsified the regimental accounts ; in December 1854 a court 
of inquiry sat at Peshawur, and Hodson was ordered to 
give up his command during the sitting. 

A most extraordinary order was published, calling upon 
all who had claims upon Hodson to bring them forward 
without delay. Such an order among Orientals was grossly 
unfair; of course all the scoundrels in the regiment came 
forward with false claims. 

Lord Napier did what he could for Hodson, and urged 
him to have all the Persian accounts translated into English. 
By working night and day Hodson managed to get the 
translation finished. 

He asked for a full and public examination of the whole 
case, and said he did not fear the result, if only they would 
hear him on his defence. The Court decided that Hodson's 
accounts were most unsatisfactory. Then Hodson de- 
manded a court-martial, but John Lawrence asked Major 
Reynell Taylor to examine and report upon Hodson"'s 
alleged misdealings. For three months the Major worked 
at the accounts ; he did not like doing it, but as he pro- 
ceeded he found that all had been quite satisfactory, though 
unbalanced and undetailed — but Hodson had taken the 
accounts over from Lumsden in considerable confusion. " I 
believe it to be an honest and correct record from bes-inning- 
to end," was the Major's verdict. 

Colonel (Lord) Napier was delighted ; he was a good 
soldier and rejoiced that Hodson had been found honourable 
and upright. But there it ended ! No public acquittal was 
made known, though the Government gave Hodson his 

79 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

papers and closed the case. Taylor's report to Simla was 
filed and put away and forgotten. Hodson quietly made 
his way to the hill-station of Dagshai and resumed his place 
as regimental subaltern in the 1st Fusiliers. 

So the Prince of Scouts might have remained unnoticed ; 
but when real warfare begins we cannot afford to throw 
away such talent. Of course Hodson felt the reverse very 
keenly : his wife felt it, and they had just lost their only 
child ! Sorrows have a habit of coming in jolly troops ; the 
best way is to fight against despair, and not put down 
every disagreeable contretemps to an overruling Pro- 
vidence. Hodson had also come down from an income of 
c^lSOO a year to ^^250 ! But he says : " I trust I am too 
much of a soldier to permit myself to be subdued by 
reverses, or to sit down and fret over the past." 

His colonel soon made him quartermaster, and later 
made an appeal to the adjutant-general of the army for 
his promotion. Subsequently Hodson had an interview 
with General Anson, the commander-in-chief, who had 
never heard of Major Taylor's good report ! General Anson 
was most kind and cordial, and promised to write to Lord 
Canning about the case. 

Meanwhile the Mutiny broke out, and no letters could 
pass between Simla and Calcutta ; but General Anson gave 
Hodson a staff appointment on his own responsibility. 

As soon as the telegraph wires flashed to Simla the news 
of the bloody revolt at Meerut on 10th May, and of the 
atrocities at Delhi, where English men, women, and children 
were butchered in street and square and palace, within 
sight and hearing of the king and his sons, General Anson 
at once ordered the dispatch of the white troops that 
garrisoned the hill-stations of Kussowlie, Dagshai, and 
Sabathu. So Hodson marched with his regiment to 
Umballa, and met his chief on the 15th May. This was 
no time for snubbing young heroes because they were 
arrogant and masterful. 

Anson made Hodson assistant quartermaster-general to 

80 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

his new force en route for Delhi : But he did more : he 
empowered Hodson to raise one thousand Irregular Horse, 
set him at the head of the Intelligence Department, and 
sent him to Kurnal in order to restore communication 
between that place and Meerut. 

Hodson started from Kurnal for Meerut on 20th May 
with a troop of Sikh horse — at dawn the next day he 
galloped through the pickets, having ridden seventy-six 
miles. He interviewed General Wilson, took a bath and 
some breakfast, had two hours' sleep, and then rode back, 
having had to fight his way some thirty miles of the distance. 

How men talked of this daring and successful ride ! All 
old libellous tales were forgotten when the presence of 
danger called for a real man. The officers at Kurnal sat 
watching him in awestruck silence as, after a wash, the tired 
rider tackled his plate with ravenous appetite. "I will 
answer no questions till I have had a square meal." 
Suddenly he put down his knife and fork and said, " Now 
I'm ready." Whereupon he began his awful recital of all 
that had befallen at Meerut, a story told with flashing eye 
and fierce tone. When he had finished, someone wishing 
for more, said " Well ? " 

"Well," rejoined Hodson, changing from tragedy to 
cheery mirth, " here we are ! the wires cut, north, south, 
east, and west : not a soul can interfere with us : we have 
the cracking of the nut in our own way : and here we are, 
as jolly as a bug in a rug." 

It was the spirit of Baden-Powell at Mafeking, hearten- 
ing the desponding with such a merry laugh as Robin Hood 
might have sent forth in the glades of Sherwood Forest. 

For Hodson was the life and soul of the whole force 
marching down to Delhi. Pathan and Sikh listened to his 
merry voice, and the spirit of worship grew in their brave 
and generous souls. Here was a white man who knew not 
fear : him they could reverence. Meanwhile Hodson began 
to raise recruits for his Irregular Horse — 2000 if he could 
get them. 

F 81 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

His friend Montgomery helped him, and called upon 
the sirdars to send men, many of whom knew Hodson by 
repute. 

In batches they kept on coming to Delhi, where Hodson 
and two or three subalterns set to and drilled them into 
form. 

General Anson had died of cholera, and Sir Henry 
Barnard, his successor, took at once to Hodson. 

Seaton had just ridden to the Ridge, escaping from his 
mutineers, and Hodson shared his tent with him : but he 
was ever riding away to get information, and thought 
nothing of eighty miles, for he could sleep on horseback 
without falling off, a feat not for every one to perform. 

General Thomason gives a lively account of one of 
Hodson's single-combat fights near Delhi. " He had ridden 
a very short distance from us when he found himself con- 
fronted by one of the enemy with shield and tulwar. 
I shall never forget Hodson's face as he met this man. It 
was smiles all over. He went round and round the man, 
who in the centre of the circle was dancing more Indico^ 
and doing his best to cut Hodson's reins. This went on for 
a short time, when a neat point from Hodson put an end 
to the performance ! "" 

Next morning the Guides under Captain Daly arrived in 
Barnard"'s camp, having done a hot march of 580 miles in 
twenty-two days. 

When the men of the Guides saw their old commander, 
they shouted " Hodson sahib ! " till they were hoarse ; 
they cheered, shouted, and wept and sung like frantic 
creatures : they kissed his bridle, dress, hands, and feet, and 
salaamed to the ground before his horse. 

Officers hearing the hubbub and seeing the crowding 
round the tall, yellow-haired Englishman, ran out of their 
tents, crying, " What is it ? Are they mobbing him ? "" 
Then, when they saw how matters stood, they murmured, 
" Good God ! and they said this fellow was unpopular with 
his corps I " 

82 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

The news spread and produced a great sensation in 
camp : it had a good effect on our native troops, for they 
were more willing to follow their European officers when 
they saw the enthusiasm of the Guides — their own country- 
men. Almost every day there were fights and alarms, 
sorties to be repelled, houses to be cleared and blown up. 
Sometimes Hodson would ride and take a look round. 
Some officers grumbled and said the way he exposed himself 
to iire was sheer madness ; but Hodson, like Nicholson, 
preferred to see things for himself. When he caught a 
severe cold, General Barnard insisted on having him in 
his own tent. " I woke in the night and found the kind 
old man by my bedside, covering me carefully up from the 
draught." 

In one fight Captain Daly was hit through the shoulder, 
which gave Hodson more work ; for the General requested 
him as a personal favour to take command of the Guides 
until Daly had recovered. He could not help feeling proud 
at being earnestly requested to resume a command of which 
his enemies had deprived him out of jealousy. 

On 23rd June, the centenary of Plassey, the rebels came 
out with all their available men and guns : for a prophecy 
had long been quoted that on this day they were destined 
to overthrow the Faranghi rule. 

All day long the fight went on under a burning sun 
which knocked over many officers and men ; Hodson was in 
the saddle most of the day and bears testimony to the 
conduct of his old Guides and his new Sikhs and Gurkhas. 
We might have suffered more than we did from this fierce 
sortie, but Hodson's native spies had warned him of the 
coming danger. 

These spies, says Seaton, came in at all hours and in all 
disguises, carrying mysterious little scrolls about their 
person : those who brought verbal messages Hodson cross- 
examined severely — such a mastery had he of the native 
languages. The English soldiers soon got to know and 
appreciate the great scout. 

83 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

" There goes that 'ere Hodson,"" said a drunken private, 
as Hodson cantered down the hnes : " he's bound to be in 
every mortal scrap — he'll get shot, I know he will : and — 
I'd a deal rather be shot myself : we can't do without that 
'ere Hodson ; blame me if we can ! " 

On 4th July, a large body of rebels, Hodson was in- 
formed, had marched past our right flank along the Alipur 
road. Major Coke with a force of all arms and the Guides 
set out to intercept the rebels and had to struggle through 
swamp and marsh; both men and horses were terribly 
knocked up, and could hardly crawl back to camp. " I was 
mercifully preserved," writes Hodson, " though I am sorry 
to say my gallant Feroza was badly wounded twice with 
sabre-cuts, part of his bridle was cut through and a piece of 
my glove shaved off'." 

On 5th July, General Barnard died of cholera brought 
on by exposure. 

One day the laugh was raised against the wily scout : 
for a body of sowars was seen riding leisurely after 
our men who were returning from pursuit. " Who are 
those?" asked Hope Grant, who sent his aide-de-camp 
to find out their identity. " Our own cavalry, sir," said 
young Anson. But Captain Hodson too must needs ride 
up to them ; he accosted them, and a friendly and even 
merry conversation ensued — " A party of the 9th Irregulars, 
are you ? Then we're all irregular ! " 

When Hodson turned his back, they put spur to their 
horses and galloped off to Delhi like wild-fire. They were 
rebel cavalry in retreat ! 

How they laughed at mess that night when the story 
was told how the cunning intelligence officer had chummed 
with the enemy, and had seen at a glance that they were 
friendly sepoys ! To catch that weasel napping was a 
comedy worth laughing at. A distinguished officer writes : 
" Affairs at times looked very queer from the frightful 
expenditure of life. Hodson's face was then like sunshine 
breaking through the dark clouds of despondency and 

84 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

gloom that would settle down on all but a few brave 
hearts." 

Recruits for Hodson's Horse now came in faster : 
M'Dowell was the second in command, and Hugh Gough 
of the 3rd Cavalr}^, Chalmers and Ellis and Shebbeare and 
others were always well to the front. 

It was strange how many hairbreadth escapes Hodson 
had : so that the natives thought he possessed a charmed life. 

General Reed was ill ; Chamberlain was wounded, because 
his men hesitated and he jumped his horse over a wall into 
the throng of rebels to give them a lead ; Wilson of the 
Bengal Artillery took the chief command, but he was 
unequal to the strain, and had little force of will. 

On the 19th of July, the news of the Cawnpur 
massacre came in : spirits went down, and cholera burst out 
in mad fury. 

General Wilson met this by ordering a regimental band 
to play cheerful tunes every morning : and the remedy 
seemed to do good. 

On July 23rd, Colonel Seaton was wounded and carefully 
tended by Hodson. "Then I saw," wrote Seaton, "that 
the brave and stern soldier had also the tenderness of a 
woman in his noble heart." 

By the end of July — what with disease and wounds, our 
Delhi force could muster only 2200 Europeans and 1500 
Native Infantry. 

On 4th August, the news came that Havelock had fought 
his way into Cawnpur, but was too late to save the women 
and children. Hodson''s mouth closed with a grim deter- 
mination. " Such fiends as these our arms have never met 
before. May our vengeance be as speedy as it will un- 
questionably be sure." Hodson never forgot those women 
and children, and the thought made him forget mercy. 

On 5th August,'! Nicholson rode into camp, and men 
took heart again as the Punjab column, 3000 strong, 
marched into camp with bands playing and followed by 
cheering soldiers. 

85 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

The many rides and adventures of Hodson's Horse are 
too numerous to detail : when the rebels saw the khaki 
tunic, scarlet turban, and scarlet sash worn over the shoulder 
they knew the Flamingoes were coming and 'twere best to 
beat a safe retreat. 

An officer who served before Delhi thus describes 
Hodson's manner : " In a fight he was glorious : if there 
was only a good hard scrimmage he was as happy as a 
king. A beautiful swordsman, he never failed to kill his 
man ; and the way he used to play with the most brave 
and furious of these rebels was perfect. I fancy I see him 
now, smiling, laughing, parrying most fearful blows as 
calmly as if he were brushing off flies, and calling out all 
the time, ' Why, try again now ! ' ' What do you call 
that stroke ? ' ' Do you call yourself a swordsman ? ' " 

But on 3rd September all seemed lost ! There were 
2500 men sick in hospital, and General Wilson had lost 
all nerve. 

But on 4th September came the heavy siege guns and 
mortars drawn by elephants, and miles of bullock-carts 
laden with shot and shell. All through the first week in 
September the troops were busy making ready for the 
assault soon to be made upon the city. On the morning 
of the 12th some fifty heavy guns and, mortars were playing 
upon the crumbling walls and giving the rebels little rest 
from their constant hail. It was arranged, at Nicholson's 
request, that Hodson should accompany the column which 
Nicholson would lead in pursuit of the mutineers after the 
capture of Delhi. 

But Nicholson was to lead one of the storming columns 
on the 14th, and this " gambler's throw," as the sick General 
Wilson called it, might prove fatal. For the rebel gunners 
were every whit as skilful as the British, since it had been 
the practice of the English in India to train the sepoys to 
serve the guns. The besieged had seen what was impend- 
ing, and had mounted heavy guns all along the northern 
face : they had even made in one night an advanced trench 

86 




Blowing up the Kashmir Gate 



The bags of powder were laid and the men were turning back when the rebels opened 
fire. Home leaped into the diich unhurt. Salkeld, who was shot through the arms 
and leg, handed the port-fire to Burgess, who fell dead before he could take it. Then 
Sergeant Carinichael lit theirain, and with a deafening crash the gate was blown open. 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

parallel to the left attack, covering their entire front. 
This trench they lined with infantry and sharpshooters. 

On the afternoon of the 13th, Wilson directed that the 
breaches should be examined. Medley and Lang inspected 
the Kashmir bastion, Greathed and Home the Water 
bastion ; both reported the breach practicable. Then Baird- 
Smith advised Wilson to assault on the morrow. 

Thus at 3 a.m. the five columns of assault were drawn 
up : they waited while an explosion party, Lieutenants 
Home and Salkeld and others, covered by 100 men of the 
60th Rifles, hurried on to attach kegs of powder and 
blow up the Kashmir gate : a bugle was to give the signal 
of success. 

The bags were laid and the men were turning back 
when the rebels opened fire. Home jumped into the ditch 
unhurt ; Salkeld was shot through the arms and leg, and 
fell back on the bridge. 

"Light the fusee, Burgess"" he murmured, and handed 
the corporal his port-fire. But Burgess fell dead. Then 
Sergeant Carmichael sprang forward and lit the fusee : he 
too fell mortally wounded. 

The next moment a fearful explosion shattered the 
massive gate. Home then told the bugler, Hawthorne, 
to sound the advance. 

The bugle-call, three times repeated, was never heard in 
the din and tumult. But Campbell, the commander of the 
third column, had noticed the explosion and ordered the 
advance. They entered the city just as the first and 
second columns had won the breaches. 

For two hours, whilst these assaults were being made, 
Hodson and his men had to sit on horseback under heavy 
fire, waiting to prevent the enemy from coming out. 

" Hodson sat like a man carv^ed in stone," writes an 
officer, ..." and only by his eyes and his ready hand 
could you have told that he was in deadly peril." Six 
hundred horsemen, of whom only 200 were British, had 
to sit unmoved all that time under a hurricane of lead 

87 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

« 

— it was a feat of great endurance, and a proof of high 
discipline. 

That afternoon Wilson removed his headquarters into 
that part of Delhi which the columns led by Nicholson, 
Jones, and Campbell had won at the cost of so many brave 
lives : and Nicholson lay in a tent dying. 

The death of Major Jacob made Hodson a captain : 
Hodson assisted at his burial, and said, " I would far rather 
have served on as a subaltern than gain promotion thus." 
Hodson gained later his brevet-majority as a reward for 
his services in the Punjab campaign : he had little time, 
however, to think of such things, for his business now 
was to ride round and ascertain the rebels' line of 
retreat. 

General Wilson was sadly discouraged by the day's work. 
He had been told that Delhi would fall, but his columns 
had been stopped and one had been driven back : his troops 
only held a short line of rampart. "Ought we not to 
withdraw to the ridge ? " he asked Baird-Smith. " Can we 
hold what we have taken ? " 

Baird-Smith looked at the invalid and replied, "We 
must hold it." 

Sixty -six officers killed or wounded and 1104 men ! 
Wilson shook his head! But the fact that the British 
had beaten the sepoys in hand-to-hand fight and were firmly 
lodged on the rampart cowed all, — from the old king in his 
palace to the meanest sowar. 

On the 16th the British stormed the great magazine 
and captured guns and ammunition. Bit by bit the city 
was being wrested from the rebels. Alexander Taylor did 
splendid work on the 19th in effecting the capture of the 
Burn bastion, and Brigadier Jones seized the Lahore gate. 
There were still many thousand armed rebels in the city 
and its surroundings, and we had only 3000 left fit for 
service. 

On the morning of the 20th, Hope Grant took his 
cavalry, including Hodson and his Irregulars, on a recon- 

88 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

naisance to the west of the city. From a hill they could 
see the native camp under the king's general, Bakht Khan, 
formerly a lieutenant of artillery, 

Hodson was looking through his glass. " Did you hear 
that, sir ? " They all heard a loud explosion. 

" They are going to abandon their camp," cried Hodson, 
and at once detached two troopers to ride down and see. 
On their confirming his guess, Hodson got leave to carry the 
news to Wilson. 

After seeing the General, Hodson took M'Dowell and 
75 men and rode right round the city to the Delhi gate on 
the extreme right, which they found open. By evening 
they had ridden some miles beyond Delhi and executed 
many a straggler, brought away three guns and many 
camels and the mess plate of the 60th Native Infantry with 
their standards and drums. 

Delhi had been evacuated during the night, and India 
was saved. But the old king, Bahadur Shah, was still alive 
and might become a focus for fresh rebellion. Hodson 
pleaded with Wilson for leave to fetch him back a prisoner : 
and the dying Nicholson added his voice for the king"'s 
arrest. So Hodson with only 50 horsemen rode through 
miles of ruinous tombs and palaces over the site of old 
Delhi for the king's hiding-place nearly seven miles off*. 
As they reached the tomb of Humayun, the second great 
Emperor of the Tartar line, Hodson drew rein at the noble 
gateway of the wide court, in which rose the dome-capped 
glory of the marble tomb, glistening white. Concealing 
his men in a building near, Hodson sent his faithful Rajah 
Ali inside to negotiate the terms of surrender, and himself 
awaited the result not far off" the gateway. 

For two hours he waited, and his cold blue eyes 
sparkled angrily at the long delay. Why ! the life of the 
king had been promised, that of his favourite wife and her 
son, Jamma Bakht. 

At last his messenger reappeared, saying : 

"Sahib, the king will accept if Hodson Bahadur will 

89 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

enter and repeat with his own lips the promise made by the 
Government."" 

So Hodson went in and repeated the pledge aloud, but 
added, " If there be any attempt at rescue, I shall at once 
kill the king." And the King of Delhi accepted his terms. 

So at length there issued out of the gate a train of palkis 
conveying the royal prisoners, but closely guarded on either 
side by Hodson's sowars. 

The march back to Delhi by a circuitous road, to avoid 
the seething crowd of angry Mahommedans, was the longest 
seven miles, Hodson says, which he ever rode. For his eyes 
had to turn on every side, watching the throng of fanatics, 
who were eager to strike a blow on behalf of their captive 
king : but they dared not lift a hand ; for Hodson, the 
yellow-haired devil, rode close by the king, ready to shoot 
the old man if any rescue were attempted. 

Passing slowly along the street of Silversmiths, the little 
band of troopers approached the red sandstone walls, 
loopholed and crenelated, which enclosed the Dewan Khas : 
they halted at the palace gate, and doubtless a feeling of 
relief took the place of that long tension of nerve all along 
the crowded roads. 

For there was imminent danger at every step, though 
some writers who wish to belittle Hodson assert that the 
natives were too cowed to offer any resistance to these 
50 horsemen ! 

So Hodson saluted the new commissioner, Charles 
Saunders, and made over his royal charge for safe lodgment 
in the royal palace. Saunders stood agape, admiring the 
brilliant audacity of the man. 

" By Jove ! Hodson,"" he exclaimed, " they ought to 
make you commander-in-chief for this."" Then Hodson 
rode on to General Wilson"'s quarters to report his success, 
and to deliver up the royal arms. 

The General greeted him gruffly, saying, " Well, I am 
glad you have got him, but I never expected to see either 
him or you again.*" 

90 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

That remark goes to prove what soldiers at the time 
thought of the peril incurred by Hodson and his sowars. 
What they thought, when all the facts were staring them 
in the face, far outweighs any peaceful opinions written 
down in the seclusion of the study long afterwards. 

So now Delhi had fallen, and the Bahadur Shah, the 
figurehead of the rebellion against English rule, was safe 
in British hands. 

Hodson was not yet satisfied : he wanted to go again 
to the tomb and fetch the villain princes, the young men 
who had stirred up the city on 11th May to hack and 
butcher all the white men, women, and children in Delhi. 
General Wilson at first refused his consent : then grumbled 
forth, "Go then, but don't let me be bothered with 

them." 

So, early on the morning of the 22nd, Hodson, taking 
his subaltern M'Dowell and 100 picked horsemen, started 
again for Humayun's tomb. He posted his men so that 
none could enter or come forth, and then sent in one of 
the lower members of the royal family and his one-eyed 
maulvi. Rajah Ali, to bid the shahzadas come forth. 

Two hours again were spent in arguing and protesting, 
and then there came forth Mirza Moghul, Mirza Aboo Bukr, 
and Mirza Kisz Sooltan, the last being the grandson of the 

king. 

They asked Hodson if the Government had promised 
them their lives. "Most certainly not," replied Hodson, 
and before they could step back they found themselves 
being hustled to a native carriage and driven off under 
escort towards Delhi. 

Hodson then formed his troopers across the archway 
and slowly drove back into the courtyard the armed mob 
of retainers who were following the princes. Then riding 
in with M'Dowell, he ordered all to lay down their arms. 
The natives looked from one to another, but a second loud 
command had its effect. They threw down tulwar and gun 
and dagger, and Hodson made them collect horses, bullocks, 

91 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

and covered carts, or "ruths," which were used by the 
women and eunuchs of the palace. 

Five hundred swords and guns were piled up in carts, 
and left in charge of a small guard, then Hodson galloped 
away to overtake the princes. This he did near Delhi. 
We will now give his own words as to what befell. " I 
came up just in time, as a large mob had collected and 
were turning on the guard. I rode in among them at a 
gallop, and in a few words I appealed to the crowd, saying 
that these were the butchers who had murdered and brutally 
used helpless women and children, and that the Government 
had now sent their punishment." Sir T. Seaton shall now 
say what he heard : " There was an immense crowd surging 
round them which was increasing every moment, closing in 
and pressing on his men. Hodson stopped the carriage 
and made the three prisoners descend. The wretches, seeing 
that something was about to happen, put up their hands 
and fell at his feet, begging that their lives might be spared, 
and that an investigation might be made into their con- 
duct. All that Hodson said was, ' Choop ruho (be silent) ; 
take off your upper garments,' and they did so. ' Get into 
the ruth ! ' They obeyed. Hodson, then putting out his 
hand and taking a carbine from one of his men, shot Mirza 
Moghul, and immediately after, the two others. Hodson's 
men shouted, 'Now justice has been done'; and the crowd 
dispersed." 

ITie bodies were then taken into the main street, the 
Chandnee Chouk, were dragged out of the ruth by sweepers, 
and exposed on the raised platform at the cut-wallee (head 
police-station) on the very spot where, on the 11th of May, 
the bodies of our unfortunate countrywomen, their husbands 
and children, had been exposed. 

Hodson adds : " I deliberately shot them one after 
another. ' God is great ! ' was the cry that broke from a 
multitude of lips, and slowly but quietly the crowds of 
awestruck Mussulmans melted away. I am not cruel, but 
I confess I did rejoice at the opportunity of ridding the. 

9S 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

earth of these wretches. I intended to have had them 
hanged, but when it came to a question of they or us, I had 
no time for dehberation.*" 

And in a letter to his wife Hodson wrote : " It was they 
or we ! and I recommend those who might cavil at my 
choice to go and catch the next rebels themselves. I must 
be prepared to have all kinds of bad motives attributed to 
me." 

Hodson had done a deed which startled and wounded 
many consciences. Critics jumped to the conclusion that 
if he could bring in the King of Delhi safely, he could have 
brought in the princes also. 

His act has been branded as " a stupid, cold-blooded, 
threefold murder." 

The second in command on that occasion, M'Dowell, says : 
" The increasing crowd pressed close on the horses of the 
sowars, and assumed every moment a more hostile appearance. 

" ' What shall we do with them ? ' said Hodson to me. 
' I think we had better shoot them here ; we shall never 
get them in.' 

" So ended the career of the chiefs of the revolt, and of 
the greatest villains that ever shamed humanity. Before 
they were shot, Hodson addressed our men, explaining who 
they were, and why they were to suffer death. The effect 
was marvellous : the Mussulmans seemed struck with a 
wholesome idea of retribution, and the Sikhs shouted with 
dehght." 

Unless these two English officers were lying, it seems to 
have been necessary to shoot the princes or they would have 
been rescued. 

The native officers, too, averred that it was a "touch 
and go" affair, that some of Hodson's own men M^ere 
wavering, and only prompt and decisive action could have 
saved them from the menacing crowd. 

It is clear that a critic safe at his desk, writing in security 
years after, is not a fit umpire to decide whether the threats 
of the crowd made such drastic treatment necessary. 

93 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

At the same time this impulsive, indignant officer, 
thinking of the shame of English women, and seeing before 
him the disgusting authors of that hideous outrage, might 
have been tempted to make himself "judge, jury and 
executioner " all in one. If it were so, every sane person 
would deeply regret that a brave man should have been 
tempted to take the law into his own hands to his own 
discredit. 

But of what sort of human beings were these shahzadas ? 

An officer who knew the princes thus describes them : 

" On the countenance of these three princes there was 
not a trace of nobility, either of birth or of mind ; but, on 
the contrary, they were stamped with everything vile, gross, 
ignoble and sensual ; as their education and pursuits had 
been, so were their features . . . these wretches, with the cold, 
calm hand of death on them, showed nothing of kingly 
descent or nobility of heart, their countenances being as 
forbidding as the despicable passions in which they had 
indulged could make them."" 

M'Dowell, who was there, has said, " Our own lives were 
not worth a moment's purchase " ; and Dr. Anderson, 
surgeon to Hodson's Horse, when asked if he thought 
the escort were really in any danger, replied, " All I can 
say is that I dressed the wounds of my own orderly, who 
came back with his ear half cut off."" 

Sir Robert Montgomery wrote this note : — 

" My dear Hodson, — All honour to you (and to your 
Horse) for catching the king and slaying his sons. I hope 
you will bag many more ! " 

General Wilson in his dispatch of 22nd September writes : 
" Three of the shahzadas, who are known to have taken a 
prominent part in the atrocities attending the insurrection, 
have been this day captured by Captain Hodson and shot 
on the spot "" ; and he speaks further of Hodson's good and 
gallant service. 

We must remember, too, that General Wilson had said 

94 



THE PKINCE OF SCOUTS 

to Hodson, " Go at once and take them if possible : but for 
God''s sake do not bring them in, if you can help it ; for I 
should not know what to do with them." General Thomason 
says : " The only time I ever saw Hodson otherwise than 
cheery was one day when I dropped in on him and found 
him ' writing his defence,"* as he called it. . . . Poor fellow ! 
he could not understand being called to account for a feat 
which must ever stand out in history as unbeaten by any 
Englishman, which is saying a good deal." 

We must confess that most officers would have shrunk 
from the duty of shooting the princes — but they would 
probably have been butchered themselves, and the princes 
might have escaped, like the Nana, to do more mischief. 

Let us also confess that some of Wilson's officers dis- 
approved of the shooting : Sir Hugh Gough, for instance, 
regrets that Hodson should have placed himself in a position 
unworthy of so brave a man. " The wretched princes, 
cowards and miscreants as they were, deserved their fate, 
and I have always held that Hodson was right in all he did, 
only excepting that one false step." 

Sir Hugh apparently thought Hodson might have risked 
the hostility of the crowd : but this — the main point — is 
incapable of proof either way. It was not Hodson's duty 
to expose himself and his 50 or 60 sowars — a guard had been 
left at the tomb — to be overpowered by the fanatic throng 
and torn to pieces. He may have erred : but a man who 
had served his country so well, deserves a merciful verdict. 
Let us end this episode by a quotation from Lord Roberts' 
Forty-one Years in India. He says : — 

" I went with many others to see the king ; the old man 
looked most wretched, and as he evidently disliked intensely 
being stared at by Europeans, I quickly took my departure. 
On my way back I was rather startled to see the three life- 
less bodies of the king's two sons and grandson lying 
exposed on the stone platform in front of the kotwali. . . . 
Hodson had shot them with his own hand — an act which, 
whether necessary or not, has undoubtedly cast a blot on his 

95 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

reputation. . . . My own feeling is one of sorrow that such 
a brilliant soldier should have laid himself open to so much 
adverse criticism : moreover, I do not think that, under any 
circumstances, he should have done the deed himself . . . 
unless there had been evident signs of an attempt at a rescue."" 

That is a fair judgment ; poor Hodson had suffered in 
reputation before the siege of Delhi, as we have seen, and 
suffered unjustly. There is no doubt he was too hasty in 
temper, and his severe critics have been too hasty in 
judgment, possibly from the highest motives. 

Jealousy still haunted the steps of Hodson : stories of 
his looting were bruited about and refuted when he had 
time to get off his horse and explain things. It may be 
enough for us to remember that when he died Hodson had 
not enough money left to pay his widow's passage back to 
England. 

We have related in the chapter on Seaton how, after the 
capture of Delhi, Hodson helped his friend in guarding the 
convoy and clearing the country of rebels. He then joined 
Sir Colin Campbell in his march from Cawnpur to Lucknow : 
and while before the latter place he received notice from 
home that he had been promoted to major! Some one 
wondered why Hodson had not been given a V.C. " Why, 
you fool, he wins it every day of his life," was the reply. 
But there is a better reason : for the V.C. was not given to 
the Company's officers until early in 1859. 

When Hodson rode seventy miles from Brigadier Seaton 
to Sir Colin's camp with dispatches, the news went round 
the 93rd Highlanders like wildfire : for they were all eager 
to see the man of whom they had heard so much. Mr. 
Forbes-Mitchell in his interesting Reminiscences (Macmillan 
& Co.) writes : " During the afternoon of the 30th December 
a man of my company rushed into the tent, calling, * Come, 
boys, and see Hodson ! He and Sir Colin are in front of 
the camp : Sir Colin is showing him round, and the smile on 
the old chiefs face shows how he appreciates his companion.' 

" I hastened to the front and had a good look at Hodson, 

96 



THE PRINCE OF SCOUTS 

and I could see that he had made a favourable impression 
on the chief. Little did I then think that in less than three 
short months I should see Hodson receive his death-wound, 
and that thirty-five years after I should be one of the few 
spared to give evidence to save his fair name from undeserved 
slander." 

We will now pass on to the assault on the Begum's 
Palace before Lucknow on 11th March. Forbes-Mitchell 
had sent two men back to the breach in the outer wall for 
some bags of gunpowder to pitch into a dark room which 
was full of the enemy. 

Instead of finding Colonel Napier and his engineers they 
saw Hodson, who had come with Napier as a volunteer for 
the storming of the palace. Hodson told the men where to 
find the powder and came running up, sabre in hand, crying, 
" Where are the rebels hiding ? " 

Forbes-Mitchell pointed to the door of the room, and 
Hodson, shouting, " Come on ! " was about to rush in. 

The Scot implored him not to do so, saying, " It's certain 
death ; wait for the powder, sir." 

Hodson made a step forward, and Forbes-Mitchell put 
out his hand to seize him by the shoulder, when the major 
fell back, shot through the chest. Hodson gasped out a 
few broken words — " Oh ! my wife ! " but was immediately 
choked by blood : a dhoolie was near and the wounded man 
was lifted into it. 

"It will thus be seen," the 93rd Highlander writes, 
"that the assertion made that Major Hodson was looting 
when he was killed is untrue. That the major was killed 
through his own rashness cannot be denied." 

When Dr. Anderson came, he found the ball had gone 
through the liver and just avoided the lungs : Hodson's feet 
and hands were cold, for there was much internal bleeding, 
and he suffered great pain. At midnight he fell asleep : 
next morning, after a short rally, the bleeding began again, 
and when Napier came to see him he spoke and breathed 
with difficulty. 

G 97 



HODSON OF HODSON'S HORSE 

" I feel that I am dying, Napier. I should like to have 
seen the end of the campaign, and — to have returned to 
England to see my friends, but — it has not been permitted. 
I trust — I trust I have done my duty." 

He asked Colonel Napier to give his love to his wife and 
say his last thoughts were of her : at a quarter past one he 
whispered, " Oh, God ! Oh, what pain ! " and in a few 
minutes died quietly, without a struggle. 

On the evening of 12th March his body was buried in the 
garden of the Martiniere at the foot of a clump of bamboos. 

Sir Colin Campbell, who attended his funeral in order 
to show his respect for " one of the most brilliant officers 
under my command," burst into tears as his remains were 
being lowered into the grave. 

Lord Napier of Magdala, one of Hodson's friends, set a 
wall round the tomb : and in a letter to Hodson's brother 
he says, " I am now, as I have always been, fully convinced 
of his honour and integrity," 

In Parliament, Lord Derby and Lord Stanley spoke his 
praise : but Hodson had not received any reward in his life- 
time, except the feeling in his mind and conscience that, 
like his great friend. Sir Henry Lawrence, he had tried to 
do his duty. Of all the heroes of the Indian Mutiny this 
soldier's fate is most pathetic, because somehow he made 
enemies as well as friends : the cruel breath of scandal had 
poisoned his reputation, and it has been many years before 
it could be fully proved that the bravest of the brave was 
not also an unscrupulous thief. Had Hodson been the 
wicked man some have painted him, he would never have 
won such noble friends as Seaton and Napier, Gough and 
Lord Clyde and Sir Henry Lawrence. 

By kind permission of Messrs. Blackwood. 



98 



CHAPTER V 

GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY, G.C.B., CLE. : 
THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

HENRY DERMOT DALY was born near Poona, in 
the Bombay Presidency, in 1823 : his mother was 
the only child of Captain Hugh M 'In tosh of the 
16th Light Dragoons, who served in Spain. His father, 
whose family possessed estates in West Meath and Con- 
naught, joined Wellington's army in the Peninsula, and 
afterwards served in America and India, and was at the 
siege of Ghazni. 

Henry Daly was sent home to be taken care of by 
his grandmother, Mrs. M'Intosh, at Newport, Isle of 
Wight. 

In 1840, Daly was given a nomination to the East India 
Company's service, and was posted to the 1st Bombay 
Fusiliers (now 1st Dublin Fusiliers), but he did not go 
round by the Cape as most travellers did in those days. 
The passengers landed in Gibraltar and saw the mixed races 
of the East for the first time : the Turk and Christian, Jew 
and Arab and Moor all jostling in the narrow streets; the 
Rock, the galleries, the numberless steps, the strange 
tongues and little monkeys of the Rock and stranger 
vegetation — all made a clear and distinct impression on 
the mind of the seventeen-year-old cadet. 

At Alexandria they found one British man-of-war 
riding at anchor at the mouth of the harbour ; to prevent 
the egress of the whole Turkish fleet ! Mahomet Ali 
kindly permitted them to pass through Egypt. 

There was but one steamer then on the Nile, " of three 

99 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

donkey power ! " But they reached Cairo at last, and wished 
to cross the desert to Suez at once. No horses ! no camels ! 
But each man was given two donkeys and a boy ; at his 
shouts and shrieks the donkey trotted forward, taking no 
notice of any vagaries of the rider expressed by whip or 
rein. 

They accomplished the 80 miles under twenty-four hours, 
and found at Suez a sea-going steamer. Thus they left on 
the 23rd September and reached Bombay on the 10th October. 

Daly's regiment was at Aden, but his father got him 
attached to a corps at Poona that he might learn 
Hindustani for the Presidential Examination. So, on 
landing, Daly started for his father's house at Kirkee, 100 
miles from Bombay, where he stayed some months. In 
May 1841 he returned to Bombay to be examined in 
colloquial Hindustani, and came out first as Qualified 
Interpreter. 

We may note how men who rose early to distinction in 
India were often helped to the first steps by knowing how 
to speak to the natives : those who studied languages while 
others played games, or shot animals, reaped a rich reward 
in promotion when their services were really in request. 

In his leisure Daly learnt a second language, Mahratti, 
and in May 1842 passed his examination well. Lady 
M'Mahon, wife of the commander-in-chief, had laughingly 
promised that if he passed she would obtain from her 
husband two months' leave for him to go to the hills. 

Next day Daly was sent for by Sir Thomas, who said, 
" Daly, I have a reward for your industry — you are to be 
adjutant of an irregular infantry regiment." As he was 
only an ensign, this appointment changed his pay from 200 
to 500 rupees a month. 

The Guzerat battalion to which Daly was appointed 
was stationed at Kaira, where Daly's mother had been 
buried : thus for months he passed his mother's grave every 
day. 

" My poor mother ! I was a child when she died, but 

100 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

so often had I read her beautiful letters that her memory 
was a living feeling." 

All round Kaira the country was luxuriantly beautiful ; 
trees planted by the conquering Mahommedans rose to a 
magnificent height, and verdure and culture met the eye on 
every side. Here began a friendship with a fellow-officer 
named Anderson which only ended with his death at 
Mult an. 

They were in the same regiment and had the same 
tastes ; they used to sit in the cool nights talking of the 
days to come, of hopes and fears and successes : then 
Anderson joined Sir Charles Napier's staff in Sind, caught 
fever and went to England. About this time Daly also 
was seized with fever and had to sail for England in 
December 1843, losing a good appointment worth ^£^700 
a year. 

If he had gone no farther than the Cape or Egypt, he 
could by the rule of the service have kept his staff appoint- 
ment : but he preferred to risk that. 

Daly travelled with a friend through Sicily, Naples, 
Leghorn, to France ; there he again met Anderson and with 
him visited his friend's family in Scotland, and thus his 
days passed joyously. But he began to realise mentally 
the prophecies of those who had warned him against going 
home. If he spent his full three years of leave, what would 
he not miss ? 

However, in March 1846, during the Sutlej campaign, 
came an order : " Rejoin your regiment ; ordered on 
service." 

In fifteen days he was off and joined his regiment : just 
then the adjutancy was vacant, and it was offered to him ! 
A few days' delay, and he would have lost a favourable 
opportunity. 

Daly's friend, Anderson, after travelling through 
Persia, joined him at Karachi, and there they lived in 
the same house for many months, until Anderson went to 
Multan. 

101 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

At Karachi, Anderson introduced Daly to Sir Charles 
Napier, who was to become a kind friend in the years 
following. 

As Sir Charles left for England in 1847, his soldiers near 
the pier preserved a sad silence — they all felt his going so 
much : as he passed down the line of troops where with 
dropped sword Daly sat on horseback at the end of the 
formation, Sir Charles recognised the young officer and 
said : " Ah, Daly, is that you ? "" then turned his horse and 
shook him by the hand, with " Good-bye ! good luck to 
you, my boy." 

Daly felt that kind words from so great a soldier were 
to be remembered with pride. 

In 1848 the Punjab seemed to be profoundly peaceful : 
Sir Henry Lawrence had gone to England, leaving his 
charge to his brother John until Sir Frederick Currie 
should come to Lahore. 

The dewan, or ruler, of the Province of Multan, to the 
south of the Punjab, was Mulraj ; he had succeeded his 
father, who had amassed great riches and constructed strong 
fortifications at Multan, a city more than two miles in cir- 
cumference, having walls of sunburnt bricks forty feet high. 

Now this Mulraj came to Lahore and told -Tohn 
Lawrence he wished to resign. No arguments coui.< dis- 
suade him ; so the Sikh Durbar, at Currie's request, decided 
to send two British officers to accept the Dewan"'s resigna- 
tion and instal his successor. Vans Agnew and Anderson 
were chosen to accompany the new governor designate, 
Sirdar Khan Singh. 

The escort consisted of 1400 Sikh infantry, a Gurkha 
regiment, 700 cavalry and 100 artillerymen with 6 guns. 

Anderson, writing to Daly from a boat on the 
Ravi, says : " The Sirdar is a fine fellow and has lots of 
pluck ... to say that I am a lucky fellow, Daly, is less 
than the truth. I could not in all India have a better 
appointment given me — I am indebted to John Lawrence 
and Outram for it." 

102 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

The poor fellow little thought he was going to his death ! 

They reached Multan on the 18th April 1848 ; on the 
19th, as they rode back from the fort of which they had 
taken formal charge, the British officers were attacked in 
the street and both wounded, Anderson seriously. Mulraj 
was actually riding by their side at the time and made no 
effort to protect them. They were brought back to the 
quarters of their escort, a Mahommedan walled temple 
outside the walls of Multan. 

Next morning their escort deserted them and joined the 
rioters. 

Sirdar Khan Singh and a dozen faithful horsemen alone 
stood by them ; and in the evening Agnew and Anderson 
were murdered by a fanatical mob. But Agnew had had 
time to pencil a note to Sir Herbert Edwardes, 90 miles 
away, and call for help. Edwardes crossed the Indus and 
besieged Multan and fought and won three battles, until 
General Whish, with Daly coming later as volunteer, 
arrived in August 1848 to besiege the fort. Here Daly 
was under fire from heavy guns for the first time : he tells 
us the Sikh gunners in Multan were beautiful shots and we 
lost many men. 

" The other day I made a most ludicrous blunder ; I 
have never yet seen the general. I was suggesting some 
change in our position, when an old gent in a white jacket 
came up ; Major Napier turned to him while I was speaking, 
and the old gent addressed some question to me, which, 
deeming irrelevant, or of no importance, compared with 
Napier's attention, I answered curtly and abruptly. 

" Gordon, who was behind, listening, said to me : 

" ' Daly, you treat the general rather coolly ! ' 

" ' Lord ! Lord ! I thought he was an old sapper ser- 
geant ! The general ! ^ " 

The siege of Multan cost us in its first stage 17 British 
officers and many men ; General Whish had to raise the 
siege and ask for reinforcements from Bombay. 

Daly served in the final siege as Adjutant of the 1st 

103 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

Bombay Fusiliers under General Dundas, and was thanked 
by the Chief Engineer, Major R. Napier, for his zeal and 
ability. 

The Bombay Column reached Multan on Christmas Eve, 
1848, and began operations on 27th December by attacking 
the suburbs, driving the enemy at the point of the bayonet 
from their strong positions in nullahs, or ravines, orchards 
and walled gardens. 

General Whish had placed his batteries in the first siege 
nearly 3 miles from the city ; now they were 500 yards 
from the walls. 

On 30th December a shell struck the Jumma Musjid, or 
Great Mosque, and another blew up a powder magazine 
in the city, killing 1000 men. 

On the 1st of January 1849, at 4 p.m., the signal to 
storm was given, the Fusiliers in advance led by Captain 
Leith ; twice were the besiegers repulsed with heavy loss ; 
Leith and his subaltern Grey were dangerously wounded. 

A third time the Fusiliers, furious at the loss of their 
officers, and raising an Irish yell that dismayed their foes, 
rushed up to the steep breach, shouting, " Remember 
Anderson," and won the summit, where Colour-Sergeant 
Bennett, amid a shower of bullets, planted the British 
colours, and by sunset the city of Multan was captured. 
However, there still remained the clearing of many narrow 
streets, no easy task, and many casualties occurred. 

Then our men lay down in square or gateway, food was 
brought them and chains of double sentries guarded them 
from surprise. 

As they slept, worn out with their exertions, suddenly a 
terrific explosion at midnight set the houses rocking and 
falling. 

Was it a mine ? None knew the cause ; but as the men 
started up from the ground, officers were heard calling to 
their men : " Be steady, boys, and stand to your arms." 

Heart-piercing cries and groans of men buried alive 
unnerved their comrades in the dark ; lanterns showed 

104 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

here and there the glimpse of a ghastly hand or leg pro- 
trudmg from the dusty debris. 

In one regiment 10 were killed and 30 injured by falling 
stones. 

Next day a hospital for the wounded and sick of the enemy 
was organised ; there were no outrages and but little looting. 

The citadel was on the point of being stormed when 
Mulraj with 3000 men surrendered. The bodies of Agnew 
and Anderson were carried with military honours through 
the sloping breach and buried side by side on the summit 
of Mulraj 's citadel. 

After the capture of Multan a garrison of Bombay troops 
was left there, and the remainder of the force hurried away 
to join Lord Gough's army of the Punjab which had fought 
two battles at great cost against the Sikhs (Ramnuggur and 
Chilianwala) and was in a very critical position. 

When the Multan reinforcements arrived, the General was 
able to fight the battle of Gujerat on 21st February 1849 ; 
in this engagement 60,000 men with an immense number of 
guns were signally defeated ; 14,000 laid down their arms, 
and the Punjab was annexed. We may then conclude that 
the battle of Gujerat saved India to us in the time of the 
Mutiny. For the Punjab, under the masterly administra- 
tion of the Lawrences, Edwardes and Nicholson, became a 
loyal province of brave and faithful Sikhs, who marched 
down to Delhi and fought side by side with their British 
brothers on the Ridge. Lord Gough had led his men well 
and bravely, but his great losses made the people at home 
cry for a change of commander ; and Sir Charles Napier was 
appointed, to Daly's great content ; yet he felt for the grief 
and shame which this change would entail upon the old 
General. At the end of May, Daly received a letter from 
Sir Henry Lawrence : — 

" My dear Sir, — You are nominated to the command of 
the 1st Cavalry Regiment to be raised at Peshawur. — 
Simla." 

105 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

After an expedition through the Kohat Pass under Sir 
Charles Napier, Daly's regiment now complete, and consisting 
mostly of Pathans and sons of great chiefs, was stationed at 
Pashawur, where Daly made friends with Sir Colin Campbell 
and Colonel Mansfield. Of the latter, Daly says : " He is 
versatile and accomplished : he will travesty Hamlet, or 
write you an essay on Military Defence, discuss Montaigne, 
or play an active part in a joke. There is a wondrous 
fund of life and humour about him." 

In 1852, Daly was again down with fever, and went 
home by Aden and Trieste. After visiting the Isle of Wight 
he crossed over to Ireland, where his father was living in a 
big house dropped down on the edge of a marsh : he found 
him surrounded by colts and horses, well and merry. No 
doubt father and son told many a tale of war and peace, 
comparing experiences of many lands. 

When Daly returned to the Isle of Wight he married a 
girl he had known from boyhood, Susan Kirkpatrick ; they 
settled down at Shanklin. In March 1854 he saw the 
British fleet sail for the Baltic, Queen Victoria receiving the 
admiral and his captain on board the Fairy before they 
sailed. By Christmas, 1854, he was again at Bombay, 
hoping to be sent to the Crimea. But Colonel Mansfield 
wrote, advising him to stay in India. After some months' 
service at Karachi as Brigade-Major, Daly received two 
telegrams from the Viceroy's private secretary — " Go to 
Agra"; "You are to command Oudh cavalry." So, 
leaving his wife at Karachi, Daly went by sea to Calcutta ; 
Oudh had been just incorporated in British India ; Outram 
had become Chief Commissioner and had got Lord 
Dalhousie to send him Daly to command an irregular force 
of cavalry. 

Daly's wife followed with her new baby and met her 
husband at Cawnpur : hence by dak ghari (or wooden 
carriage with Venetian blinds) they went to Lucknow ; 
passing many mosques and temples with tall minarets, they 
went through the Dilkusha Park, full of magnificent mango 

106 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

trees, acacia and banian till they arrived at the flat -roofed 
house near the river Goomti, which was to be their home. 

There, every morning, men and horses from all parts of 
India came to be selected for the new regiment ; the horses, 
wilder than the men, covered with all sorts of bright saddle- 
cloths and scarves from nose to saddle-girth. 

At the end of January 1857, Mr. Jackson, the chief 
commissioner, brought two pretty nieces to Lucknow, and 
the ladies got up a ball for them. Alas ! in a few months 
these pretty girls were seized by mutineers, and no one 
knows what fate pursued the elder sister, Georgina : 
Madeline, a bright sunny girl, was held captive in Lucknow 
city, half-starved, but rescued at last. On Daly's return 
from chasing an outlaw, he found a telegram from Sir 
John Lawrence, offering him the command of the Guides 
in Lumsden's absence. Meanwhile Sir Henry Lawrence had 
been made chief commissioner at Lucknow and wrote 
asking Daly to visit him at the Residency. 

Mrs. Daly writes : " 24th March. — We came in here last 
night. . . . Sir Henry is a most charming person ; his 
manner so kind, cheerful and affable ; it sets every one at 
his ease . . . but he looks sadly weary ... he hates state and 
does not care for driving out with four horses ... he gives 
one the feeling of living for another world, he believes that 
the real life is to come." 

Daly had accepted the Guides by Sir Henry's advice, 
and on 14th April they left Lucknow and proceeded by 
Cawnpur to Agra. 

They reached Delhi on the 18th April, talked to 
officers about the disaffection of the sepoys, and so on by 
Umballa to Lahore : Mrs. Daly and her child went to 
Simla and saw the Lawrence Asylum for children of white 
soldiers, to which Sir Henry Lawrence had given ^10,000 
in the last four years. 

How nearly they had missed destruction — Lucknow, 
Cawnpur, Delhi ! and only one month more, when the 
floods of mutiny would rise and swell. Daly had done his 

107 



1 
GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

212 miles in twenty-one hours by mail-cart. He says : 
" Grand doing, wondrous whipping, desperate driving in 
the dash across narrow bridges of boats — 10.30 a.m., found 
Sir John in his office, no coat on — shirt sleeves tucked up — 
amidst a heap of papers— we had many familiar chats — he 
is prompter and harder than Sir Henry . . . has not that 
generous delicacy of his brother, is energetic, bold and 
vigilant." 

Daly went on to Attock, where the morning air was 
cool and fresh, and to Mardan, where the Guides were 
stationed. There he found Battye second in command ; 
Kennedy, commandant of cavalry; Hawes, adjutant; and 
Stewart, assistant-surgeon. 

It was a bare fortnight after he joined the corps that 
Daly heard the first news of the mutiny at Meerut : an hour 
afterwards came an order from Colonel Edwardes, for Daly 
to move with his corps to Noushera. At midnight he 
arrived, and two hours later received an " urgent '"* to pro- 
ceed at once to Attock. Into Attoch galloped Chamber- 
lain, a resolute, thoughtful soldier, with whom Daly had a 
grave talk. 

In his diary Daly writes : " Swam the Indus last night 
and again to-night ; the current was strong, and I found I 
had no spare strength on my return." 

Marching by night they escaped the great heat and 
dust storms. On the 18th they were overtaken within 4 
miles of Pindi by Edwardes, riding in a buggy to visit Sir 
John Lawrence. Daly jumped in, and they found at 5 a.m. 
Chamberlain in bed at the door : Sir John, in bed within, 
called them inside and conversed frankly and cordially. 

Telegrams were read and discussed : Meerut with 1600 
English troops making no effort to crush the mutineers 
was the worst item. 

The young soldiers resolved on a course of action, 
without delay or hesitation. Edwardes and Nicholson, 
Cotton and Chamberlain stoutly told the old and somewhat 
bewildered General Anson what to do, and he did it ! 

108 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

Chamberlain was to command the movable column — 
high-minded he, and bold as a lion, knowing what to do. 
The Guides were to press forward for the scene of action. 
Daly and other officers could hardly keep awake as they 
rode ; . the men were cheerful and willing. They reached 
Lahore on the 26th and set about recruiting : many Sikh 
sirdars offered help : not one noble had joined the rebels. 
On 1st June they reached Ludhiana and enjoyed splendid 
quarters at the grand house of Mr. Ricketts, with iced 
water and cold sheets to lie on ! 

At Kurnal, on the 6th June, cholera broke out in Daly's 
corps and attacked three Gurkhas and others ; one cook 
died and five sick men were left behind. Edwardes writes : 
" We are all delighted at the march the Guides have been 
making. It is the talk of the border. I hope the men 
will fill their pockets in the sack of Delhi." 

On the 9th of June the Guides joined the Delhi force : a 
great excitement was caused as they appeared on the Ridge ; 
for their stately height and martial bearing struck all be- 
holders, and they came in as fresh and light as if they had 
marched but a few miles. Yet the march from Mardan to 
Delhi, a distance of 580 miles in twenty-two days, at 
the hottest time of the year, has been considered one of the 
finest achievements of the war. 

They had just completed their last thirty miles to 
Delhi when a staff officer galloped up. " How soon can 
you be ready to go into action ? " " In half an hour." 
That was rather sharp work ; but some of them had seen 
hotter work at Multan. Three hours after their arrival 
they were engaged hand-to-hand with the rebels, and 
every British officer of the Guides was wounded. 

Battye was mortally wounded ; Khan Singh Rosa hard 
hit ; Hawes cut across the face with a tulwar ; Daly had 
his horse killed under him and was hit in the leg by a 
spent bullet ; Kennedy was slightly hurt. 

Edwardes writes to Daly : " Amidst all our joy at the 
march and brave deeds of the Guides, we are greatly 

109 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

grieved to hear of poor young Battye's death. He was 
full of hope and promise, and is indeed a flower fallen 
from the chaplet of our Indian Army." 

Quintin Battye was shot by a sepoy within a couple 
of yards of him, right through the lower part of the 
stomach : he had fought gallantly and died a hero's death : 
he had two other wounds. 

Of the commanders-in-chief, General Anson had died 
on the 27th May ; General Sir H. Barnard died on the 
5th July ; General Reed was invalided on the 17th July ; 
Brigadier-General Archdale Wilson was the fourth to take 
up the command. Hodson had said in his trenchant way, 
" We shall never do anything till all these old gentlemen 
pass away " ; and this was the hard truth. War is certainly 
not a profession for old age : there are only a few elderly 
men, like Lord Roberts, who maintain the vigour and 
decision of youth. Within the city were 40,000 sepoys 
trained to shoot and charge by English officers; on the 
Ridge there were a little over 6000 on the 8th July. It 
was no wonder if the besiegers sometimes felt more like 
being besieged. The Guides were posted on the right of 
the Ridge, and during the siege had to repel twenty-six 
separate attacks on this side of our line. 

Sir John Lawrence wrote to Daly his congratulations 
and said he was sending every man they could muster ; 
but Peshawur gave anxiety, and three European regiments 
had to be held back in the Punjab, for none of the Hindoo 
corps could be trusted. And in censuring a certain general 
who had allowed all the Jullundhur rebels to escape, 
though they had a river to cross, Sir John bitterly re- 
marks : " When I see some of the men we entrust with 
our troops, I almost think that a curse from the Almighty 
is on us." 

On the 19th July, Daly was very severely wounded ; for 
the enemy, taking advantage of the British being engaged 
in the front, moved round to our right and rear under 
cover of thick foliage. It was a surprise ; for we had only 

110 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

a portion of the 9th Lancers, the Guides cavalry, and four 
guns with which to meet the attack. 

Sir Hope Grant, who was in command, detached Daly 
to the left with two of Major Tombs' guns under Lieutenant 
Hills, a troop of lancers and the Guides cavalry. These 
quickly found themselves in the presence of a strong force 
with eight guns in position and a mass of infantry and 
cavalry. Daly directed Hills to get his guns into action, 
and with his Guides started off to clear the left flank 
already threatened by rebel cavalry. They were barely 
holding their own when Major Tombs came up with the 
remainder of his guns. 

As the enemy began to close on Daly's men in great 
numbers, Tombs sent word to the Guides : " I must ask 
you to charge to save my guns." Thereat Daly led the 
Guides at a gallop, broke through the infantry and reached 
the enemy's guns. 

But Daly got a bullet through his left shoulder which 
crippled his arm for life. As he lay on the ground in 
the dusk of evening his men searched for him in vain ; 
until one of the enemy, who had served in the 1st Oudh 
Irregular Cavalry,, came up and pointed to where he lay. 
Of this native Mrs. Daly had written a year before thus : — 

" There is a young Shahzadah (prince) in this regiment, 
a grandson of Shuja-ul-Mulk. A handsome boy of eighteen, 
pale and delicate, with beautiful eyes; a very interesting 
lad. The grandson of a king, he is thankful to be a 
jemadar (cornet) with c£^40 a year. Henry has taken quite 
a fancy to him, has him into the house to talk to him, 
gives him quinine, etc." 

This boy seems to have joined the rebels from com- 
pulsion : poor lad, when Delhi was taken, he was probably 
hanged. A poor return for having saved the life of his 
former colonel. Yule, who commanded the 9th Lancers, 
also fell wounded ; he was not found, and the rebels prowled 
round the battlefield during the night and put him and 
others to death. "Poor Yule," wrote Daly, "he trotted 

111 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

by me as I lay on the ground : it was quite dusk : he ought 
not to have been killed." For it was pitch dark when 
our men retired, otherwise we might have taken all their 
guns ; one gun and two carriages were taken the following 
morning when, at Daly's suggestion, a party was sent out 
to search the ground. 

Major Tombs said the enemy got so close to his guns 
that they could pick off his gunners as they worked the 
guns, and rendered it almost impossible to serve them. 
Daly's charge saved the battery ; but it was a desperate 
charge right up to the enemy's guns. It was then that 
Hodson took the command of the Guides for five weeks, 
and was subsequently succeeded by Shebbeare. 

On the 23rd of June, the Sikh corps arrived from the 
Punjab, and soon gave the rebels a specimen of their 
fighting powers. 

On the 24th, the sepoys came out in great force, sniping 
and occupying gardens : their loss was so immense that 
they did not fire a shot next day. We found out what 
was going on in the city by Hodson's spies ; there were also 
native officers who got in for three or four days at a time, and 
reported how there was dissension amongst the rebels, quarrel- 
ling over loot, robbing and fighting and much disease. 

John Lawrence sent down in July 200 picked Punjabis, 
well mounted, under Lieutenant Bailey — a good reinforce- 
ment for the Guides. 

The new arrivals of mutineers, it was said, were not 
allowed to enter Delhi until they had shown their prowess 
outside ; thus many of them got cut up by our men and 
never saw the inside of the city. 

On the 6th of July, Daly writes : " Poor General Barnard 
died yesterday of cholera : no doubt in him, like General 
Anson, worry and anxiety laid the seeds of the destroyer. 
He was the gamest, kindest, and kindliest gentleman I 
ever met. But he had no mind, no resolution save what 
he got from others. We have lots of good men and true, 
though heaps of muff's and old women." 

112 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

When General Reed became commander-in-chief, Cham- 
berlain became the real head : he was for waiting a little 
and would make no assault until more troops and guns 
came up : but Daly and Hodson were for immediate assault. 
Even as early as the 12th June, Wilberforce, Greathed, 
Maunsell, and Chesney had prepared a plan of assault : but 
an accident enforced its postponement. Men's spirits rose 
when they heard that Phillour, Agra, and Allahabad had 
been saved to the British. Phillour saved by an hour and 
a half! from this place most of the supplies for the siege 
were brought. Agra saved by stratagem : Allahabad by 
the fearlessness and prompt action of Lieutenant Brasyer, 
a young man who had been promoted from the ranks for 
his splendid conduct during the Sutlej campaign of 1846. 
Brasyer with his Sikhs, some invalid Europeans and Eurasians, 
disarmed just in time the 6th Native Infantry and expelled 
them from the fort. 

These arsenals were of prime importance to the army 
before Delhi ; but they were not saved by the foresight of 
the Indian Government. 

On 15th July, Chamberlain had his arm broken : his tent 
was next to Daly's, and they were great friends. Daly says 
of him : 

" Chamberlain is of heroic mould, gallant and forward to 
a fault : tall, with a soldierly gait, fine principles, and an 
honest heart." 

As to the price of provisions in camp, a buggy (covered 
dog-cart) was sold by auction for a pot of jam. Tins of 
bacon fetched four rupees a mouthful : grain was cheap, but 
fowls were unknown. 

On the 29th July, Daly reports that a victory at 
Fattehpur, below Cawnpur, had cheered the men vastly. 
Havelock had given the perpetrators of the Cawnpur 
Massacre a lesson in retaliation : Captain Maude, R.A., 
had shown them what eight guns could do, and if they had 
had cavalry to follow up the victory, it would have been 
complete. 

H 113 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

The dark days of the Delhi siege were now passing : 
the men played merry games when they were not fighting ; 
provisions were brought in by willing natives, who no 
longer thought that the British rule was doomed. Sheep 
began to be common now, poultry abundant ; troops from 
China were expected. 

Then Sir John Lawrence wrote, 25th July, to say he was 
sending down upwards of 4000 good and reliable troops, 
of whom 1200 might be Europeans : he dare not send more 
from the Punjab. 

Edwardes writes 27th July : ^' . . . Our fancy man, 
Nicholson, has gone down from this side with his shirt 
sleeves up ; so I hope this is the beginning of the end and 
Delhi will be assailed and squashed . . . Your native 
soldiers never write to their fathers, mothers, or sweethearts 
— and a precious row I hear at my house about it. If you 
would only send up some captured trophy, you would do 
good.^' 

On the 4th August a letter from Havelock told how he, 
with the 78th Highlanders, 1st Madras Fusiliers, and Sikh 
corps, had beaten the rebels in three battles and taken all 
their guns : the Nana's residence had been destroyed, and 
Havelock was now on his way to relieve Lucknow. The 
Cawnpur tragedy, however, and the death of Sir Henry 
Lawrence sadly dashed the growing feeling of optimism 
among the men. 

There were many deserters from Delhi, but the wretches 
were plundered by the villagers : there remained now in the 
city only about 15,000 effectives. 

On the 14th August the Punjab column came in with 
Nicholson, and the men began to talk about the assault 
being near. 

On the 26th of August the camp heard that the siege 
train of heavy guns was not far off : the rebels, too, in Delhi 
heard this, and sent out 6000 men and eighteen guns to 
intercept it. 

This rebel force was attacked by Nicholson, who took 

114 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

twelve guns and thoroughly routed the enemy. But Major 
Lumsden's brother was killed, a fine gallant young soldier. 
Daly says : 

" Nicholson accomplished what I believe no other man 
here would have done, and this is the impression of every 
man here — he is able, vigorous, and brave as a lion : so 
many guns were not taken even on the 8th June." 

On the 4th September the siege train came safely in. 

Two batteries were erected on the night of the 7th, 
600 yards from the walls : the enemy were simply astonished 
when the firing began, and cavalry came out to take the 
guns, but a shower of grape quelled them. 

By the 9th, ten heavy guns were at work tearing down 
the defences. Baird-Smith and Alexander Taylor had 
worked hard to reconnoitre and choose the ground and get 
the batteries erected. On the 11th September, Taylor called 
on Daly, saying all his work was over : one battery was to 
open 160 yards from the wall, and it was fully expected 
that Pandy would get a surprise packet. 

On the 12th, there was a meeting at the General's to 
hear the plan of assault : three columns, led by Nicholson, 
Campbell, and Jones, were to assail the walls and bastions. 
Great regret was felt this day at Fagan being shot as he sat 
on the trail of his gun watching the effect of the shot for 
which he had just laid. He was an officer respected by all, 
cheerful, hardy, heroic : if all the heroes of this war were 
mentioned in any detail, many volumes could be filled. In 
fact it was no ordinary war : the supreme danger put every 
one on his mettle, and brought out unsuspected heroism. 

Up to now Daly's wound had prevented him from taking 
active duty ; he was able neither to ride nor run, but he 
watched the assault from the top of Hindu Rao's house. 

From this coign of vantage he could not see the breach, 
but on the 15th could see our mortars shelling the palace, 
and a long train of fugitives leaving the city, and of animals 
laden with spoil : the mortal wound of General Nicholson 
and the broken arm of Greathed gave him great sorrow. 

115 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

The Guides during the assault were in action on the 
right : in this young Murray fell, shot through the chest. 

On the S2nd, Daly reports : " The old king is in our 
hands . . . some Sikh sowars of Hodson''s came on the sons, 
not knowing who they were : they plundered them and took 
no heed of their capture. We shall get them yet, I hope ; 
that Mirza Moghul must be hanged as high as possible." 

On the 27th, Daly was staying with Major Coke in a 
palace in Delhi, being unable yet to ride. He saw the vision 
of a looted city : doors and windows broken ; no life, save 
it were that of a derelict cat furtively peeping round the 
corner of some old bedding or furniture ; the citizens either 
fled or roaming about with hungry eyes — no beggars these, 
you see, but haply nobles of yesterday and Indian ladies 
delicately bred, carrying their jewels about their person, 
sorely famished for want of food and clothing. 

The rebels had made a stiff resistance in places up to a 
certain point : but you could still see sand-bags piled up 
across some narrow street, guns loaded and placed in 
position, but not fired : for there were none to lead them. 
In October, Daly was granted a few weeks' leave to Simla : 
thence he wrote letters criticising Lord Canning for his 
delay in helping Lucknow, Lord Palmerston for babbling 
in debate instead of acting at once ; for even 500 men sent 
to Bombay might have done real good. " Sir John is most 
kind, most cordial . . . nevertheless he is not to me what 
Sir Henry was. I had a love for him exceeding even the 
admiration and reverence in which I held his lofty character 
and great attainments ; as Lumsden said, " It is much, 
Daly, to have known one such man." 

The Guides left Delhi on the 18th December 1857 : at 
Peshawur they were given a great reception ; the troops of 
the Peshawur cantonment were paraded under General Sir 
Sydney Cotton to welcome them ; and a royal salute was 
fired on their approaching the parade-ground. Of the 19 
officers who had been attached to the Guides during the 
siege, 3 were killed, 1 died, and 8 were wounded ; of the 

116 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

last, 1 was wounded six times, 1 four times, and 2 twice. 
Amongst the men there were 313 casualties out of 550. 
Twenty-five native officers and men of the Guides received 
the order of merit ; 54 were specially mentioned and pro- 
moted on the spot for gallantry in the field. The Court of 
Directors addressed the Government of India in August 1858 
and dwelt on their wonderful march to Delhi, their services 
before the rebels, and their singular fidelity, as shown by 
the fact that out of 800 men not one deserted to the 
enemy. 

Daly then spent his few weeks' leave at Simla with his 
wife, who had been left there in May, when the station was 
entirely without defence. Mrs. Daly and children started 
for England in January 1858 ; being accompanied by her 
husband as far as the Indus, where they took boat. Then 
Daly returned by mail-cart to Lahore, wishing he could join 
Sir Colin Campbell in clearing the rebels from Oudh. 

He thought how that General, strong in artillery, 
cavalry, and prestige, would sweep the cowed sepoys before 
him into their forests and deserts : while he remembered 
how the rebels fought in the beginning of the Mutiny, sure 
of victory with their thousands against our poor hundreds, 
buoyed up by prophecies and elate with the first massacres 
of helpless women and children, they fought then for our 
extermination, now they knew the tables were turned. 

Daly's old friend Mansfield was now chief of the staff 
to Sir Colin, and while Daly was visiting Edwardes at 
Peshawur, a telegram came : " The chief of the staff 
inquires where is Captain Daly ? " The reply was, " At 
Peshawur, waiting for orders." 

On the 23rd of February, Daly underwent a painful 
operation in order to recover the use of his left shoulder. 
Two days later came another telegram : " Ask Daly to 
come to Lucknow and live here with me — he may be in 
time for the struggle, if he makes haste." With Sir John 
Lawrence's permission Daly set off" at once. 

He found his friend and Sir Colin at the Martiniere, a 

117 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

college founded by General Martino, a French officer in the 
King of Oudh's service. Daly met with a hearty reception ; 
Sir Colin being markedly cordial. 

On the 12th of March, Daly reports : " The cordon is 
closing in on every side. Poor Hodson was badly wounded 
in the city, whither he had gone to speak to Colonel Napier. 
Mansfield wishes me to assume command of his corps, which 
is stronger than any here." 

It chanced that Daly was at Bank's house when Hodson 
was brought in on a dhoolie : he fetched a doctor and 
helped to attend on him. 

" Hodson was a wondrous compound," writes Daly ; 
" ability high and strong ; power and energy, physical and 
mental. His ability had received more culture than fell to 
the most of us. For he did not quit England till twenty- 
three years of age, when he was a B.A. and somewhat 
distinguished at Cambridge." 

Hodson's Horse numbered just then 750 sabres with 7 
officers : many of the men had never bestrode a pony before 
leaving the Punjab. Mr. Montgomery and the Rajah of 
Jhind had raised some troops at first : the men, bumping 
through the camp at Delhi on the big obstinate horses, 
were nick-named " The Plungers " : they quickly learned 
to ride, however. 

Soon after taking this command Daly had to ride 
out with the 7th Hussars and attack a mass of rebels 
collected at Nawabgunge : there was much single-combat 
fighting : some of the Irregular Horse, who had been 
attracted to the corps by hopes of plunder there, were 
found unfit for the service. 

Daly discovered a good deal of loot gathered by his 
men and tried to equalise profits : for while some looted, 
others were busy fighting and got nothing : all had had 
much rough work to do ; long patrols, hard gallops, 
difficult reconnaissances. They were a strange medley of 
men from the plough, robbers from the hills and border, 
nobles'* sons and small land proprietors. They all needed 

118 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

to be managed with tact and genial talks rather than 
scoldings and severity. 

After the relief of the Lucknow garrison, the city 
looked like Delhi after its capture : camp followers filled 
courts and houses, plundering and searching : dead bodies 
of sepoys, carcases of animals clogged the narrow passages 
and rendered the air nauseous and unhealthy. Most of 
the inhabitants had fled, but they had left behind the 
tokens of their skill in preparing for resistance in loop- 
holed walls and timber-built barricades ; batteries and 
trenches in many places intersected each other. The 
Residency was a heap of ruins, pillars were broken, rooms 
were choked with the debris of fallen ceilings and roofs : 
the church was levelled to its foundations. Much of this 
damage was done during the rebel tenure of the place, 
after Sir Colin relieved and withdrew the garrison in 
November 1857. 

It is said that one officer of the 13th Native Infantry, 
Sergeant Macpherson, had been accidentally left behind in 
the Residency : he had fallen asleep in a dark corner, and 
had not heard the warning cries of those about to leave. 
When he awoke, several hours after the garrison and 
all had gone, he was amazed by the strange silence, and 
jumped up to find he was alone in the fort and buildings. 
Quickly he ran in the dark down the lonely streets, through 
deserted palaces and courtyards, meeting none ; till he 
reached the Secundra Bagh, where, to his delight, he came 
upon the rear-guard of the Highlanders : he was known 
afterwards as " Sleepy Sandy." Captain Waterman was also 
left asleep in the Residency : he too contrived to join the 
rear-guard in safety ; but the fright so affected his nerves 
that he was never the same man afterwards. 

Daly reports on the 25th March having led a pursuit of 
rebels through the long grass, which was still full of armed 
men who started up like hares, but fired ere they bolted. 

All round Lucknow for miles the country was covered 
with dead carcases — men, horses, camels, bullocks, and 

119 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

donkeys lay about everywhere, and swarms of flies pestered 
the soldiers, settled on their plates of rice in black masses, 
and were a veritable torment as well as danger. 

When the men struck their tents at night, the flies 
were sleeping in the roofs ; so when the tents were rolled 
up the flies got crushed and killed : on pitching the tents 
again, the sweepers of each company were called to collect 
the dead flies ; and from one tent there were carried out 
five large basketfuls of dead flies. 

As most of the rebels from Lucknow had retreated 
north-west towards Bareilly and Rohilkhand, Daly's force 
was sent to cut them off. The country soon became 
diflicult with belts of trees and thick underwood, very 
unfitted for movements of cavalry : also there were rivers 
and canals to cross, corn-fieldsand jungle full of desperadoes. 
At every minute men were being fired at and often 
wounded by these skulking sepoys. Outram had been 
attacking Moosabagh at the end of March, and one 
morning Daly received a note from the brigadier : — 

" Come up as quick as you can and order a squadron 
of your regiment to follow : the rebels are streaming out 
of the fort." 

The 1st Sikh Cavalry helped in the pursuit, but the 
officer in command, Wale, a gallant, cheery officer, was 
shot dead after cutting up a large number of the rebels. 

One thing which Daly noticed was the small attention 
given to the war by the husbandmen : only for an hour 
or two were the sheaves of corn deserted; the bullocks 
were seen to be yoked to the well, ready to turn the wheel 
for irrigating the soil ; the cucumber seed was sown, and 
all was carried on as if war were like a passing shower 
that need not interfere with the more important operations 
of life and nature. 

It was reported that a large force, chiefly consisting 
of Lucknow rebels, was collected in Bareilly under Khan 
Bahadur Khan, who had issued orders to his men for 
their guidance in these words : — 

120 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

" Do not attempt to meet the regular columns of the 
infidels, because they are superior to you in discipline 
and have more guns : but watch their movements ; guard 
all the ghats on the rivers ; stop their supplies ; cut up 
their piquets ; keep constantly hanging about their camps ; 
give them no rest." Wise words no doubt ! the old 
Mahratta tactics ! 

The Indian who had organised the Mutiny from the first, 
the Moulvi, the man who had proclaimed the restoration of 
the King of Delhi, was going about Rohilkhand with a large 
force of cavalry. He and the Nana were together at Mo- 
humdee, and John Jones of the 60th had attacked them with 
great spirit : but the British forces were not numerous 
enough to meet the enemy at so many scattered points. 

In June 1858, Daly was ordered to accompany General 
Hope Grant in an attack on rebel rajahs, etc., at Nawab- 
gunge, whose forces numbered some 12,000 men with tenguns, 
for many rajahs who wished to help the British were being com- 
pelled to join the rebels, or have their estates plundered. 
In one fight Daly made three charges and captured nearly 
all the enemy ''s guns. 

Some men were beginning to blame Sir Colin for not 
clearing the country more successfully ; but Daly always spoke 
well of the old General : " To my mind, knowing how terribly 
he is enveloped in ancient prejudices, it is wonderful to con- 
template what he has done : . . . Sir Colin would have been 
happier in command of a brigade : ... all in all, he has done 
well. The peerage will bring him no satisfaction : he said to 
me one day very mournfully, I am wifeless and childless — a 
lone man. The rank and wealth and honours which would 
have gladdened those dear to me, come to me when all 
who loved me in my youth are gone. Ah ! Daly, I have 
suffered poverty and hardship. For years, for the want 
of a few hundred pounds, I was compelled to live in the 
West Indies, unable to purchase the promotion I craved 
for, and which younger men about me were getting as 
they wished : those were bitter days." 

1^1 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

The richest men in high command, and old generals 
not superseded ! One wonders how victory ever came to 
grace our arms ! 

Forbes-Mitchell of the 93rd Highlanders describes 
vividly the charge made by 360 Rohilla Ghazis or religious 
fanatics at the battle of Bareilly. 

Sir Colin saw them coming and called out, " Ghazis, 
Ghazis ! close up the ranks ! beyonet them as they come on." 

The Ghazis charged in blind fury, with their round 
shields on their left arms, their bodies bent low, waving 
their tulwars over their heads, throwing themselves under 
the bayonets and cutting at the men's legs. Colonel 
Cameron of the 42nd was pulled from his horse by a 
Ghazi ; but his life was saved by Colour-Sergeant Gardener, 
who got hold of a tulwar and cut off the Ghazi's head. The 
struggle was short : every one of these brave Ghazis was killed ; 
133 lay in one circle in front of the colours of the 42nd. 

Sir Colin caught the glint of the eye of one Ghazi as 
he lay on the ground, shamming dead. "Bayonet that 
man ! " he cried. But the Ghazi was enveloped in a thick 
quilted tunic of green silk, and the blunt Enfield bayonet 
could not pierce it : the Highlander would have been cut 
down, had not a sikh Sirdar rushed to his aid and cut 
off the Ghazi's head with one sweep of his keen tulwar. 
These fanatics made no bones of killing non-combatants. 
Mr. Ross, chaplain of the 42nd, all unarmed, was seen 
to be running for his life, dodging round camels and 
bullocks, with a rebel sowar after him : at last, seeing 
some Highlanders, he rushed to them breathless for 
protection, stammering out, " Ninety- third ! shoot that 
impertinent fellow ! "" The sowar was shot down and his 
Reverence escaped with his life. In these fights with the 
rebels we often hear of the marvellous keen blade of the 
tulwar. There were three brothers named Ready in the 
93rd, two of whom were cloven in twain by tulwars in 
the assault on the Begum''s palace at Lucknow. David, 
the remaining brother, dropped his bayonet, seized a tulwar 

122 



THE LEADER OF THE GUIDES 

and in a kind of frenzy swung it round with terrible effect, 
cutting off men's heads as if they had been mere heads 
of cabbage. The curve of this tulwar was about a quarter 
circle, and it was sharper than most razors. The wonder 
is how such tempered steel could be wrought with such 
simple appliances. 

Some of the rajahs were faithful to us in heart, and 
some also in deed. The Rajah of Bulrampur was most stead- 
fast — one wonders if his loyalty was ever repaid ! His 
elephants were sent to Sekrova for the transport of the 
ladies and children to Lucknow, and with him took refuge 
all the officers and civilians who were saved. In 1858 
his position became difficult, when the sepoys from Delhi 
and Lucknow were thronging the towns and hiding in the 
fields. Nevertheless the Rajah held his ground, though 
his chief town had been plundered in December. The 
English General had congratulated him on his staunchness, 
and all the small rajahs were then seeking his influence, 
which he was proud to use in their behalf. An amnesty had 
been proclaimed, but the sepoys did not know about it, and 
kept skulking in the forests, spiritless and hopeless, but armed. 
So the Oudh rebellion was slowly dying out : but in Central 
India, Tantia Topee was still giving much trouble. 

In April 1859, Daly handed over his command to 
Hughes and sailed for England. Thus ends the story of 
Daly as far as the Mutiny is concerned. But he returned 
to India and did good service in Central India as political 
agent: in his political career he showed great sympathy 
with the native princes. To commemorate his work the 
chiefs of Central India subscribed towards a handsome 
building named " The Daly College " ; and Lord Dufferin 
in opening the hall spoke of Sir Henry Daly as one of 
the most accomplished and high-minded public servants 
in India — the champion and friend of the Native Princes 
and the Native States. 

He died at Ryde in July 1895, having lived a life of 
action throughout : a grand horseman, a lover of dogs and 

123 



GENERAL SIR HENRY D. DALY 

horses, he had also a rich fund of Irish humour and de- 
lighted in telling and hearing anecdotes. He was well read 
in history and biography and was deeply religious at heart. 

" To my mind," he says, " there is no religion so holy as 
that of helping and comforting our fellow-creatures." 

Sir Neville Chamberlain wrote : " The natives were at 
once led to trust him; they accepted him as a just judge 
and as a friend who would do his best to see that their 
rights were respected by the State." 

Thus the dashing cavalry officer developed into a healer 
of discord and a saviour of his Indian brethren. 

Life of Sir H. Daly, by kind permission of Colonel Daly and 
Mr. Murray. 



124 



CHAPTER VI 

FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS OF KAN- 
DAHAR, V.C, THE YOUNG GUNNER 

FREDERICK SLEIGH ROBERTS was born at 
Cawnpur in September 1832. His father was 
General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., and his 
mother Isabella, daughter of Major Abraham Bunbury, 
62nd Foot. 

Lord Roberts was educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and 
Addiscombe, and began his army career as 2nd Lieutenant 
in the Bengal Artillery. 

On the 20th February 1852 he set sail from Southamp- 
ton for Calcutta. On landing at Alexandria they were 
hurried on board a large mastless canal boat, and towed up 
the Mah'moudieh canal for ten hours. At Atfieh on the 
Nile they changed into a steamer and reached Cairo in 
sixteen hours. 

After two days' stay at Shepperd's Hotel they set out 
across the desert in a sort of bathing-machine, holding six 
persons and drawn by four mules. Roberts' companions 
were five cadets, who made the journey of eighteen hours 
fairly tolerable ; the baggage was carried on camels together 
with the mails and the coal for the Red Sea steamers. 

At Madras young Roberts went ashore to see Addis- 
combe friends, who were excited at the prospect of a war in 
Burma : the transports being actually then in the Madras 
roads, ready to start for Rangoon. 

As an artilleryman Roberts made his way to Dum- 
Dum, and found only one other subaltern at mess, as the 
rest had embarked for Burma. The life here was ex- 

125 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

tremely dull and the sanitary arrangements defective : the 
adjutant-bird, highly protected, was their most efficient 
scavenger. 

Calcutta, lighted at night by smoky oil-lamps, had no 
great attractions. The senior officers took little notice of 
the juniors, and Roberts began to wish he had never come, 
especially when he heard that nearly every officer in the 
Bengal Artillery had served over fifteen years as a subaltern. 
In those days a subaltern could not return home under ten 
years, and there was no going to the hills : Roberts felt 
home-sick, and wrote to his father, asking him to get him 
sent to Burma. His father replied that when he got 
command of the Peshawur division he would send for 
him. That gave him some hope at last : and in August 
he got his marching orders to proceed to the north-west 
of India. 

From Calcutta to Benares, Roberts travelled in a barge 
towed by a steamer, taking nearly a month to accomplish 
it, owing to sandbanks. 

From Benares to Allahabad he rode on a horse-dak ; 
and on arrival was most kindly and hospitably received by 
Mr. Lowther, the commissioner. 

His next halt was Cawnpur, his birthplace. Here he 
stayed a few days, and then proceeded to Meerut, where he 
first saw the far-famed Bengal Horse Artillery, and said to 
himself, " I, too, will be a horse-gunner some day," For 
the men were the pick of the Company's service, their 
physique magnificent and their uniform handsome. 

From Meerut to Peshawur, 600 miles, Roberts had to 
ride in a palanquin, for there were no more metalled roads. 
Eight men divided into reliefs of four carried the traveller 
through the night hours ; chattering coolies bore the 
baggage, and a torch-bearer lighted the path in front with 
stinking oil. 

Three miles an hour was a good pace, and dak-bungalows, 
or rest-houses, were erected by Government at intervals. 
Here you could get a bath and shake off some of the dust ; 

126 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

the khansameh, or host, would chase a thin chicken round 
the yard and serve it up to you in twenty minutes. 

In November, Roberts reached Peshawur, his journey 
having occupied nearly three months, whereas now it only 
takes three days. 

Sir Abraham Roberts, then in his sixty-ninth year, had 
just been appointed to command the division with temporary 
rank of major-general. He was considered a young and 
active officer for this responsible post. 

Father and son had met very seldom before, but they 
soon made great friends, and the younger man learnt much 
about the Afghans which came in very usefully when, 
twenty-five years later, he commanded in Afghanistan. 

The Peshawur station included Attock, Rawal Pindi, 
and Jhelum, as well as the hill-station of Murree. As the 
frontier was so near, piquets were posted on all the roads 
leading to the hills, and every house was guarded by a well- 
paid watchman belonging to a robber tribe ; it was dangerous 
to ride beyond the line of sentries, and officers with ladies 
had been attacked. 

Here Roberts first began to enjoy life in India : there was 
plenty of adventure, and he made good friends. The two 
senior officers on Sir Abraham's staff were Lieutenant 
Norman and Lieutenant Lumsden ; both destined to carve 
out distinguished careers. Like Seaton, Roberts was horri- 
fied by having to attend a flogging parade : fifty lashes 
were given to two fine young men in the Horse Artillery 
for selling their kits. After the flogging they were sent to 
prison. 

No sooner were they released than they repeated the 
offence, probably as a way of showing their resentment at 
their ignominious treatment. A second time they were tried 
by court-martial and sentenced to be flogged. A parade 
was ordered. One man was stripped to the waist and tied to 
the wheel of a gun. The sentence was read out, a trumpeter 
stood ready with a whip, when the officer in command, 
instead of ordering him to begin, addressed the prisoners 

ia7 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

kindly, and said if they would promise not to commit the 
same offence again he would remit the flogging. They did 
promise, and they kept their word. Not only that, but they 
both became good, steady, and loyal soldiers. 

In 1853, Sir Abraham, being sick, was advised to retire 
and go to England. 

In 1854, Roberts got six months' leave and travelled in 
Cashmere — that hilly country of gardens and woods. So 
productive is the soil that if you cut a stick and put it in 
the ground, it will strike root and bear blossom or fruit in 
a short time : and yet Britain sold this country for three- 
quarters of a million pounds ! As Lord Roberts remarks, 
it would have made the most perfect sanatorium for our 
troops, and from its height would have proved invaluable 
as a colony for cultivation. As it was, the people 
were poor and miserable ; for the Mahommedan peasants 
were ground down by Hindu rulers who seized all their 
earnings. 

In November, Roberts, to his great delight, was given 
"his jacket," and was to remain at Peshawur, the young 
officer's paradise. Nearly all the men in his troop were big 
Irishmen, fine riders, as they needed to be when the horses 
were half wild and full of spirit. 

In 1855, when at Simla, Roberts lunched with Colonel 
Becher, the quartermaster-general, who was so taken by 
the young artilleryman that he said, "Roberts, I should 
like to have you some day in my department." This meant 
a staff appointment, and Roberts felt supremely happy. 

In the winter he sometimes rode over to Mardan, where 
Harry Lumsden and his Guides were stationed. There he 
had many a gallop after the hawks, hunting the aubara; 
it was here he became so fine a rider. 

The brigadier at Peshawur, Sydney Cotton, who did 
not believe in mere drill, kept them alive with field 
days, preparing for real war. And yet this able officer 
had not yet got the command of a battalion, though he 
had been forty-three years in the army and was over sixty. 

128 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

That indeed was the age of elderly generals and ir- 
resolution, and of discontented subalterns. But Roberts 
was vastly surprised to hear in 1856 that he had been 
selected with Lumsden to assist in the survey of Cashmere. 
It was just what he wished; but soon his hopes were 
dashed by the Governor- General refusing to confirm his 
appointment, because he had not passed the prescribed 
examination in Hindustani. 

It was then May, and the half-yearly examination was 
to be in July. Roberts set to work, engaged a good 
munshi, or instructor, and studied Indian literature from 
morning to night. Roberts passed the examination and 
won the appointment. 

A year later, 1857, Roberts went with General Reed on 
a tour of inspection as staff officer. Jhelum was first visited ; 
the sepoys seemed contented and respectful, and were 
praised highly by their British officers. 

They went on to Rawal Pindi, where Sir John Lawrence 
offered Roberts a post in the Public Works Department. 
Roberts, not wishing to leave the army, respectfully declined 
the offer. 

One day in April, Roberts was surveying in the hills at 
Cherat and found to his surprise a camp pitched close to 
his tent : Lieutenant-Colonel John Nicholson was on his tour 
of inspection. Roberts had heard this officer spoken of with 
admiration, and even awe, in the Punjab : he had just left 
Bunnu, a wild district which he had ruled as a semi-divine 
hero. 

" I have never seen anyone like him," says Lord Roberts. 
" He was the beau-ideal of a soldier and a gentleman. His 
appearance was distinguished and commanding, with a 
sense of power about him which to my mind was the result 
of his having passed so much of his life amongst wild and 
lawless tribesmen." 

During March and April rumours came to Peshawur of 
mysterious chupatties or unleavened cakes being sent about 
as a token of some change coming. Then they heard of 
I 129 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

the outbreak at Berhampur and of Man gal Pandy at 
Barrackpur; of the disbanding of two regiments and the 
refusal of the cartridges. Yet these warnings passed un- 
heeded : it seemed a partial trouble ; no one believed the 
whole Bengal army could mutiny ; the officers were positive 
that their own men were trustworthy. 

At Peshawur the officers were sitting at mess on the 
evening of the 11th May, when the telegraph signaller 
rushed in, breathless with excitement, a telegram in his 
hand, which proved to be a message from Delhi "to all 
stations in the Punjab," stating that a serious outbreak had 
occurred at Meerut, and that the mutineers had reached 
Delhi, which was in revolt. 

Instantly Colonel Davidson rose and said, "We must 
let the Commissioner and the General know at once : and, 
gentlemen, not a word to anyone ! " 

Davidson then hurried off to Sir Herbert Edwardes, who, 
with his deputy, Nicholson, lived close by : Edwardes, on 
hearing the news, drove to the General's house, while 
Nicholson came to the mess-room. 

He too pointed out the importance of keeping the news 
from the native troops. There were at Peshawur 5000 native 
soldiers and 2000 European troops : in the city were 50,000 
natives who might rise and help the native regiments. 

Fortunately there were some good men and true at 
Peshawur, and not all elderly. Edwardes was thirty-seven, 
Nicholson thirty-five ; Neville Chamberlain, the commandant 
of the Punjab Frontier Force, was thirty-seven. 

At once Edwardes seized all native correspondence at 
the post office : letters and papers, when examined, showed 
that every native regiment was involved in the rebellion. 

On Tuesday the 12th May, Roberts was summoned to a 
military council at General Reed's house, when important 
resolutions were passed. 

Edwardes and Nicholson said, "The only chance of 
keeping the Punjab and frontier quiet is to trust the chiefs 
and people : get them to join us against the Hindustanis,"" 

130 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

It sounded perilous ; but the thing was done, because no 
one knew the frontier so well as these two men : and our 
trust was not misplaced : the men of the north - west 
responded loyally to our demand. General Reed was to 
join the chief commissioner at Pindi, leaving Cotton at 
Peshawur ; a movable column was to be organised and the 
Hindu regiments were to be scattered as much as possible. 
Punjab infantry was to replace the sepoys in the fort of 
Attock, where there was a magazine : Attock also covered 
the passage of the Indus. 

Chamberlain was nominated to the command of the 
movable column, and, to Roberts' delight and surprise, he 
offered to take him as his staff officer. This column was to 
move on every point in the Punjab where open mutiny 
required to be put down by force. 

We will now relate in more detail the occurrences which 
happened at Meerut, and which startled every mess in India. 

The Meerut division was commanded by General Hewitt, 
an officer of fifty-eight years' service ; the station of Meerut 
by Brigadier Archdale Wilson, of the Bengal Artillery. The 
garrison consisted of the 6th Dragoon Guards, a troop of 
Horse Artillery, a battery of Field Artillery, the 1st 
battalion 60th Rifles, and three native corps, the 3rd Light 
Cavalry and the 11th and 20th Native Infantry. Towards 
the end of April 85 men of the 3rd refused to take their 
cartridges. A general court-martial was held on them : the 
court was composed of 6 Mahommedans and 9 Hindus. 

On the 8th May they were tried, found guilty, and 
sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for ten years. 

Next morning there was a parade of the whole garrison, 
and the sentence of the court was read out to the men. 

The 85 troopers were then stripped of their uniform, 
shackled, and marched down the line to the gaol : as each 
passed along, he called on his comrades to rescue him, but 
none stirred. 

The commander-in-chief wrote his disapproval of the 
riveting of the fetters in the presence of the men. " This 

131 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

must have stung the brigade to the quick : the consigning 
the prisoners to gaol with no other than a native guard over 
them was folly that is inconceivable." 

But General Hewitt at any other time would have been 
applauded for his attempt to make the punishment as 
marked and public as possible. In order to understand 
what followed, a few words on the plan of the cantonment 
will be necessary. 

Meerut is placed between the rivers Ganges and Jumna, 
in a great plain stretching from the lower spurs of the 
Himalaya towards Central India. It is one of the oldest 
stations in India, and was at first a frontier post. The 
barracks of the English troops fronted north, to a fine 
parade-ground ; on the right were the Bengal Artillery, the 
Rifles were in the centre, and the 6th Dragoon Guards on 
the left. Behind the men's lines came the hospital, gymna- 
sium, canteens, etc., and then the officers' quarters. 

To the rear of these was a wide road named the Mall, and 
behind this the ground was occupied by houses and bazaars. 

The native lines, being about a mile to the rear, fronted 
west, and were built for seven battalions : the officers' 
bungalows, each surrounded by its compound, were only 
separated by a street from the great Suddur bazaar. Be- 
tween these northern and western lines were hundreds of 
fine buildings, residences of civil and military functionaries, 
public gardens and colleges and squares, all shaded by well- 
grown trees. 

The native walled city lay a little south of the whole : 
the English church was to the north of the British lines. 

How sudden and unexpected the rising of the sepoys 
was we can see by the accounts given. For instance, the wife 
of Captain Muter of the 60th King's Royal Rifles had 
driven to church on Sunday evening — the day following the 
manacling of the sepoys ; it was about 6.30 p.m. and near 
sunset. As this lady sat in her carriage, awaiting her husband 
and listening for the sound of the band, a gentleman ap- 
proached and said : 

132 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

" You need not be alarmed, but an outbreak has taken 
place requiring the presence of the troops : so there will be 
no service this evening." But the lady waited until 7 p.m., 
and as no congregation came Mrs. Muter ordered the syce 
to turn the carriage and go home. 

Then she saw the native lines in a blaze and heard a dull 
sound of voices. Men were running in all directions, and 
when Mrs. Muter reached home the servants advised her to 
hide in the compound as her life was in danger. Fortun- 
ately a message came from Captain Muter, bidding her take 
refuge in the quarter-guard. 

The chaplain of Meerut tells us he was about to start 
with his wife for evening service, when the ayah, or native 
nurse, besought her mistress to stay indoors — " Mem-sahib, 
there will be a fight with sepoys." 

They took the two children in the carriage with them 
at the wife's request; but before the church was reached 
sounds of musketry were heard from the native lines. As 
the chaplain arrived at the church enclosure, the buglers of 
the 60th Rifles were sounding the "alarm" and the "as- 
sembly." 

The men had been standing unarmed, as for church, in 
groups on the parade-ground, ready to " fall in " ; when, on 
hearing the "alarm," they rushed tumultuously towards 
their barrack-rooms and armed themselves. This the rank 
and file did instantly without waiting for any order. Then 
Captain Muter, seeing no superior officer near, dispatched 
Lieutenant Austin and a company of riflemen to secure the 
treasury, which contained several lakhs of rupees to pay the 
troops withal. This was perhaps the best service done that 
day ; but Captain Muter's prompt action escaped at first 
the notice of his superiors and of historians.^ 

The mutineers had made their plans craftily; they 

meant to begin their outbreak when the white soldiers were 

in church and unarmed. But they were not aware that, 

owing to the greater heat, the evening church parade had 

^ My Recollections of the Sepoy Revolt^ by Mrs. Muter. John Long. 

133 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

been altered to 7, instead of 6.30 p.m. In consequence of 
this, as the mutineers galloped down the 60th Rifle lines 
they came upon the men fully armed and falling in. 

So they reined in, turned and galloped to the gaol, broke 
into the cells, and released the 85 prisoners, their comrades, 
and all the other prisoners, being about 1200. 

Meanwhile the two native regiments were firing at random 
on their own parade-ground and burning their barracks. 
Their British officers hurried to the lines and tried to restore 
order, but in vain. The sepoys, whom they had believed to 
be as true as steel, warned them to be off, or they would be 
shot. These sepoys would not willingly kill their own 
officers. But when Colonel Finnis began to exhort the men 
of his own regiment, the 11th, to be true to their salt, some 
of the 20th came up and riddled his body with bullets : 
he fell from his horse and was slashed to pieces. 

Besides Colonel Finnis, seven officers, three officers' 
wives, some children, and many European men, women, and 
children were massacred. 

We must remember that it was dark almost directly 
after the first outbreak. General Hewitt at first drew up 
his men on the parade-ground, and sent a few rounds of 
grape into a humming mass which could be heard on his 
left : the hum ceased and all was still. Then the men were 
ordered to the Mall — the wide street behind their lines — 
and there they bivouacked, while a chain of sentries was 
thrown around the European lines. 

But the bazaars and private houses were all night in the 
hands of thousands of Goojurs (plundering gipsies) and bad- 
mashes (rogues) : terrible were the experiences of many 
during those hours of riot and massacre. 

Next morning soldiers were sent round to collect the 
dead. Ladies, lying naked on the ground, hacked with 
sabres and almost unrecognisable, were picked up from 
smoking ruins or from streets and ditches. 

In some houses a pile of dying and dead had been half 
covered with broken furniture. Everything had been rifled 

134 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

and stolen ; not by the sepoys, for they had ridden away to 
Delhi, but by the released gaol-birds and bad men from the 
lowest classes of the native city. 

But the outrages and murders were not confined to 
Meerut : many villages around were looted, their in- 
habitants lay dead in the streets, and a few women and 
children only remained to weep over their loss and the 
absence of British justice and compassion. For this was 
really not an Indian revolt, but a sepoy mutiny. 

We have mentioned the alacrity of Captain Muter 
in saving the treasury : there were other officers whom 
the suddenness of the shock had not paralysed. Colonel 
Custance, commanding the Carabineers, had ordered out 
his men and sent to ask for instructions at the first 
sound of firing. After a long delay, General Hewitt ordered 
him to proceed to a gaol some miles away : thus the services 
of this regiment were rendered useless to the rest of the 
troops. Fortunately the Carabineers lost their way in the 
dark and returned to the parade-ground, where they 
found the 60th Rifles and artillery waiting to be attacked. 

Brigadier Wilson advised the General to return to the 
Mall, in case the mutineers had moved round to attack the 
European quarters. The General assented ; and as the 
troops went south they saw lurid pillars of fire rising from 
many a bungalow. Search was made, but no sepoy could 
be found : for they had all gone off' to Delhi. Captain 
Rosser of the Carabineers offered to lead a squadron of his 
regiment along the Delhi road, but his suggestion was not 
accepted. General Hewitt would hazard nothing, and do 
nothing on so dark a night. So the scum of the city were 
left to burn and rob and murder whom they would. 

Even the commissioner, Mr. Greathed, knew nothing 
about the revolt until a howling mob surrounded his house ; 
though an officer of the 3rd Native Cavalry had dropped 
hints, and an Afghan pensioner had given a warning of 
what might follow. 

First he and the ladies sought refuge on the roof; but 

135 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

when torches were applied, the roof was no longer safe. The 
servants, as so often elsewhere, were true, and helped to 
conceal them in the garden ; while the rabble were led 
away on a false scent to an outhouse. 

But many wives were slaughtered without mercy, chiefly 
by the butchers of the city : these ruffians went to Delhi 
next day, but had the audacity to return to Meerut, and 
were promptly hanged. One Mahommedan gentleman in 
the city sheltered two families at great danger to himself, 
and many families owed their lives to the devotion of their 
servants. 

Thus, we see, the sepoys were permitted to get off" clear, 
owing perhaps to the darkness falling so suddenly : but it is 
difficult to learn why no attempt was made next day to 
punish the marauders. 

The commissioner in his report writes : " It is a 
marvellous thing that with the dreadful proof of the night's 
work in every direction, though groups of savages were 
actually seen gloating over the mangled and mutilated 
remains of the victims, the column did not take immediate 
vengeance on the Suddur bazaar, crowded as the whole 
place was with wretches hardly concealing their satisfaction." 
All that the authorities did was to collect and place in 
the theatre the bodies of the murdered men and women. 

It must be recorded that the sepoys of the 11th Native 
Infantry behaved better than the others: some of them 
saw their own officers to a place of safety ; and two sepoys 
escorted two ladies with their children to the Carabineer 
barracks. This regiment had joined the rebels unwillingly. 
It was reported afterwards that Lieutenant Gough had been 
told on the 9th May, the day before the outbreak, by a 
Hindoo native officer, that the men had determined to 
rescue their comrades. 

Gough went at once to his commanding officer, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel C. Smyth, and reported what he had heard. 
" Pooh ! pooh ! my boy, quite ridiculous ! You must not 
believe anything so monstrous,'' said his colonel. 

136 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

Later in the day Gough met Brigadier Wilson and told 
him about the warning : the brigadier smiled con- 
temptuously, and naturally the young lieutenant said no 
more about it. 

But next day, Sunday, the same native officer, attended 
by two troopers, galloped to Gough's house, crying, " The 
hala (row) has begun, and the sepoys are firing on their 
officers." 

Gough mounted his horse and, accompanied by these 
three cavalry soldiers, rode to the native parade-ground, 
where he found the sepoys yelling and dancing as if possessed, 
while the glare from the burning huts shed a lurid light 
on faces working with the wildest frenzy. The three 
troopers persuaded Gough to ride off before he was shot ; on 
his way to the European lines he came upon an enormous 
crowd of townsfolk, armed with swords and sticks, who 
tried to stop him. Through these the four men charged 
at a gallop, and his native friends did not leave him till 
he was near the artillery mess. Then they made him a 
respectful salaam and rode away to join the mutineers. 
Gough could never hear what became of these good 
friends. 

Meanwhile the mutineers galloped along the flat road 
between Meerut and Delhi, 35 miles ; and very glad they 
must have been when they saw the minarets of the Jami 
Masjid glittering in the rays of the morning sun. Once or 
twice they had drawn rein to listen for the sound of 
galloping ; but, strange to say, no horses of the Carabineers 
were on their heels that night. So they reached the waters 
of the Jamnah, crossed noisily by the bridge of boats, cut 
down the toll-keeper on the farther side, set fire to the 
toll-house and slew the one Englishman whom they met. 

They then made the best of their way to the great gate, 
Chandni Chouk, facing the principal street in Delhi, Silver 
Street, where the jewellery shops occupied one side, with 
gaily painted varandahs and Moslem arcades and porticoes, 
while handsome trees rose with shady foliage on the other. 

137 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

Soon they came to an open square, in the centre of which 
was a tank where they stopped to water their horses. But 
the horses sniiFed and turned up their lips in disgust ; for 
already they smelt the blood of white men and women ; 
though that tank was fated to receive many more bodies of 
butchered women and children in a few hours. 

The buniahs, or shopkeepers, looked drowsily forth as 
the sepoy troopers trotted by on their way to the lofty 
walls enclosing the king's palace ; soon bastions and 
embrasures and loop-holes met their gaze, and slabs of red 
sandstone that faced the walls made all seem stony and 
massive. 

There were two Englishmen who held official positions 
of importance inside the palace walls — Mr. Fraser, the 
commissioner of Delhi, and Captain Douglas, the com- 
mandant of the Palace Guards. 

The sepoys were making no little noise in the outer 
courtyard, demanding admittance : the aged king heard the 
noise and sent for Captain Douglas to ask why they were 
there. Captain Douglas said, " I know not, sir, but I will 
go and see." For he thought the sight of a British uniform 
would frighten these men away. The king timidly begged 
him not to expose himself to danger, for the sepoys looked 
wild and ferocious : the king's physician added his en- 
treaties to those of his master. 

Douglas, then, did not go down to the courtyard, but 
entered the balcony, and looking down, ordered the troopers 
to be off, as their presence there was an annoyance to the 
king. Thereat the sepoys laughed scornfully and spat 
towards him. They again demanded to be admitted : it 
happened that the sepoys on duty at the palace belonged 
to the 38th Native Infantry, and were disloyal to the 
core. When, therefore, the troopers of the 3rd Cavalry 
attempted to force an entrance into the palace, they ad- 
mitted them as comrades. Once admitted, the mutineers 
made short work of all white men and women they found 
within. 

138 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

They cut down Mr. Eraser, Captain Douglas, the 
chaplain, Mr. Jennings, his daughter, and Miss Clifford, 
a young lady staying with them. Mr. Hutchinson, the 
collector, was also found and killed. The orderlies of the 
king did not look on and wonder ; they joined in the savage 
fray with fiendish delight. 

The fury soon spread from the palace to the mercantile 
quarter : the Delhi bank was attacked first ; though its 
manager, Mr. Beresford, defended it for some time most 
gallantly, he was slain and the bank was stormed and 
gutted : the English church and every house occupied by 
Christian or Eurasian were attacked and rifled : no quarter 
was given to age or sex. 

About two miles from the city the cantonments for the 
native brigade were situated on the Ridge, commanded by 
Brigadier Graves. 

The morning parade was over and the officers had just 
finished breakfast when the startling news came that the 
native troops at Meerut had mutinied and that the 3rd 
Cavalry had galloped across the bridge. The officers here, 
too, never dreamed of suspecting the loyalty of their men : 
there were quartered on the Ridge the 38th, the 54th, tlie 
74th Native Infantry and a battery of native artillery. 
Thinking the Meerut affair a mere local disturbance, and 
that the Carabineers would soon be coming up, the officers 
of the 54th Native Infantry led their men towards the city 
gates. 

Even as they went some men of the 38th, at the main- 
guard, when ordered to fire on the Meerut troopers who 
were seen approaching, refused with insulting expressions ; 
while the 54th fired, some in the air, and some on their 
own officers. Colonel Ripley was wounded ; Smith, Bur- 
ro wes, Edwards and Waterfield were shot dead. 

The colonel of the 74th then addressed his men, re- 
minded them of their past good conduct and called upon 
volunteers to come with him to the Kashmir gate. The 
sepoys stepped forward and their officers trusted their 

139 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

loyalty until they came near the main-guard, when they 
met some men of the 54th Native Infantry who were 
returning from the city. These exchanged words with the 
74th, but just then the din within the walls of the city 
became overwhelming : the sepoys evidently dreaded lest 
the English troops might have arrived from Meerut, and 
they thought it wise to await events. 

So they halted all unbidden, silent and glum, at the 
main-guard. Then suddenly an awful explosion within the 
city shook the foundations of the main-guard. We must 
see what had caused this explosion. In the middle of Delhi, 
not far from the palace, stood the great magazine, full of 
powder, shells and cartridges. 

On that morning the following officers were within : 
Lieutenant George Willoughby, in charge of it ; Lieutenant 
Forrest and Lieutenant Raynor ; Conductors Buckley, Shaw, 
Scully and Crow ; Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. 

About 8 a.m. Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, the magistrate 
of Delhi, came to the magazine to say that mutineers were 
crossing the river and to ask for two guns to defend the bridge. 

When, later, Willoughby learnt that the mutineers had 
been admitted into the palace, he began to act. The 
magazine should be defended ! All gates were closed and 
barred and barricaded, guns were set at salient points, 
charged with grape. 

But all the under-workers in the magazine were natives ! 
However, arms were served out to them under Willoughby's 
eye. He knew them well, they had been good comrades 
for some years ; but he did not like the look in the men's 
faces as they took the weapons of oifence. 

However, there was no alternative to be taken ; but in 
case things should call for desperate remedies, these few 
Englishmen had a train laid to the powder magazine. 

They had scarcely finished this job when there was a 
great beating on the gate ; sepoys had come to demand the 
surrender of the magazine in the name of the King of Delhi. 
No reply was returned to this. Then the sepoys sent down 

140 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

scaling ladders : no sooner were they fixed than all the 
native workers clambered up to the top of the wall and 
joined the rebels from Meerut amid loud cries of joy. 

For some time a fire was kept up by the few defenders : 
Forrest and Buckley had been wounded, and death seemed to 
be certain when Willoughby gave the order to fire the train. 

Scully, who fired the train, and four of his comrades 
vanished into space. Willoughby and Forrest succeeded in 
reaching the Kashmir gate ; Raynor and Buckley somehow 
escaped with their lives ; for no native was just then in a 
position to stop them, seeing that several hundreds of them 
had been blown to atoms or mutilated beyond recognition. 
The loud report, the concussion, the breaking of windows 
in the palace warned the king and his creatures that they 
had now to deal with a race who were most formidable 
when the odds were against them. It was about 4 p.m. 
when this explosion startled the sepoys near the main- 
guard ; at first they were frightened, but on second thoughts 
it occurred to them that their friends were succeeding. 
The sepoys of the 38th Native Infantry raised their muskets 
and fired a volley into the group of officers near them. 
Gordon, the field-officer of the day, fell dead from his horse 
without a groan. Smith and Reveley of the 74th met the 
same fate. 

The only way of escape for the rest was to dash through 
the embrasure in the bastion, cross the courtyard of the 
main-guard, then drop thirty feet into the ditch : after that 
they must climb the opposite scarp, gain the glacis and so 
plunge into the jungle beyond. 

But as the unwounded officers ran, they heard the cries 
of women from the windows of the upper room and, staying 
their course, beckoned to them to come down. 

Then hurrying all to the opposite embrasure, the officers 
fastened their belts together, and so helped the women and 
children to descend into the ditch. With difficulty they 
got the fugitives up the scarp ; when this was done they 
pressed on into the jungle. But whither for safety ? 

141 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

Neither the cantonments nor the Metcalfe house were 
safe refuges. So away they ran, throwing away every 
ornament, crouching in lanes, fording rivulets, hiding in 
woods and hollows, carrying the little ones, falling and 
fainting from hunger and thirst and fatigue, racked by 
fever and sun-scorched, sometimes insulted by villagers, 
sometimes helped by kind Hindoos or loyal Mussulmans, 
until at length a small number of them reached Meerut, 
or Karnul, exhausted and half dead. 

Meanwhile, in the city of Delhi some fifty Europeans and 
Eurasians had taken refuge in a strongly-built house and 
barricaded themselves in. But defence was impossible for 
long ; the house was stormed and the defenders were 
dragged to the palace and thrust into an underground 
chamber, without windows. Here they stewed for five 
days ; then they were led out into the courtyard and 
stabbed or shot. Their bodies were taken away in carts 
and pitched into the muddy - flowing Jamnah. After 
that 16th of May there were no more Christians left in 
Delhi. 

The poor old king, Bahadur Shah, had been compelled 
to assume a power and responsibility for which he was 
unfitted by age ; but his young queen was ambitious for her 
handsome son, and urged the old king to be brave. The 
cry was raised, " Restore the Mogul Empire " : and the 
Hindoos believed that their patriotism would secure them 
happiness here and hereafter. But they had not reckoned 
on the feeling of the Mahommedans and the Maratha princes : 
as it was, the princes of Central India thought it wiser to 
remain safe under British suzerainty rather than help the 
Hindoo sepoys to restore a dynasty which they themselves 
had thrown in the dust. 

As the sepoys of Meerut had risen in revolt half an 
hour too soon, to find our men arming instead of dozing 
in church ; so the mutiny of all Bengal had exploded several 
days before the date fixed in their councils, namely, Sunday 
the 31st of May. 

U2 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

Though General Hewitt, the man of mdecisive counsel, 
did not know it till long after, he had by his manacling of 
the 85 men put a match to the local explosion too soon, 
and robbed the sepoy mutiny of half its force. 

If Lord Canning did not at first recognise the gravity 
of the crisis, surrounded as he was by men who trusted the 
sepoy, yet when he heard of the seizure of Delhi, he 
resolutely set to work to find means of defence. He 
telegraphed to Lord Elphinstone at Bombay to hasten the 
return of troops from Persia ; he bade the commander- 
in-chief make short work of Delhi ; he gave Sir John 
Lawrence full powers to act for the best ; he sent for 
a regiment from Rangoon and two regiments from 
Madras. 

We can now return to the doings of Roberts in the 
North- West, having given the reader more facts about the 
beginnings of the Mutiny than any officers in the Punjab 
had had time to discover and appreciate. 

On the 15th May, Brigadier Chamberlain and Roberts 
arrived at Rawal Pindi where Sir John Lawrence then was. 
Edwardes was summoned from Peshawur and consulted 
about the wisdom of raising levies of frontier men, as 
Nicholson and he had advised. Roberts, during the six 
days' stay at Pindi, was occupied mainly in copying letters 
and telegrams, and thus learnt all that was going on in the 
Punjab. He was struck by Sir John's correct judgment 
and by his intimate knowledge of details : he was very 
anxious to collect all the wives and children of soldiers and 
civilians into fortified stations, and gave orders accordingly. 
Brigadier F. Brind, who commanded at Sealkot, objected 
to withdraw the families of his troops to Lahore on the 
ground that such a measure would show a want of confidence 
in the sepoys ! 

But John Lawrence insisted on the removal, and soon 
after this Brind's troops mutinied, and he was shot down 
by one of his own orderlies. 

It was reported that at Peshawur disaffection was 

US 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

spreading, English troops being few, now that the Guides 
and 27th Foot had been withdrawn. Nicholson felt this 
in the great reluctance of the frontier men to enlist. 

Hence it was resolved to disarm the native regiments, 
as has been described. The native officers were loud in 
expressing their conviction that the disarming was wholly 
uncalled for, but Brigadier Cotton soothed their hurt 
feelings and excepted the 21st Native Infantry and two 
regiments of irregular cavalry. For in the cavalry both 
horses and arms were the property of the horsemen, and it 
was believed that the interest men had in the service would 
keep them loyal. The subahdar-major of the 51st had 
arranged for a revolt on the 22nd May ; but this disarming 
spoilt his game, for when he deserted with 250 men to the 
Afridis and brought no muskets with him, the Afridis 
seized the deserters and made them over to the British 
authorities. What was the use of 250 hungry men who 
could not shoot? So the subahdar-major was hanged in 
front of the whole garrison. 

On the 24th May, as Chamberlain and Roberts and 
Lieutenant Walker were riding in mail-carts to Wazirabad, 
the road being broken in parts, the drivers raced with 
one another and lashed their half-wild ponies in reckless 
rivalry. 

One of the reins became unbuckled, and as long as the 
driver did not notice it, all went well ; but at last he saw 
what had happened, lost his head and tugged at the one 
rein. The ponies went off the road, then came a crash, an 
upset and a scattering of bodies in collision. 

It might have been of serious moment, but fortunately 
nobody was much hurt. At Wazirabad it was Roberts' 
duty to call upon the senior officer. Colonel Campbell, and 
inform him that Brigadier Chamberlain had come to take 
over the command of the movable column. 

The colonel was lying on his bed and never moved 
when Roberts entered. " I am not aware," he said coldly, 
"that the title of brigadier carries with it any military 

144 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

rank. I understand that Chamberlain is only a lieutenant- 
colonel, whereas I hold the rank of colonel in Her Majesty's 
Army : I must therefore decline to acknowledge Brigadier 
Chamberlain as my senior officer." There was another 
reason for a soreness in the fact that Chamberlain was a 
servant of " John Company " : for a certain jealousy always 
existed between the two services. However, things were 
smoothed down, and at last Campbell, who had only been 
a short time in India, consented to serve under the 
brigadier. 

On the 31st May they reached Lahore and found it in 
a state of excitement : ladies and children had been hurried 
thither for security : in the city there were 100,000 people, 
mostly Sikhs and Mahommedans. 

The headquarters of the Lahore division was Mian Mir, 
five miles away. Here there were four native regiments 
and very few European troops. Brigadier Corbett was in 
command, full of vigour, mentally and physically. The 
chief civil officer was Robert Montgomery, a man of a short 
and portly figure, gentle and benevolent, but able and of 
strong character. Montgomery, on hearing the Meerut 
news, got Corbett to call a parade, had guns loaded with 
grape, and then Corbett ordered, " Pile arms ! " 

Sullenly the men threw down their arms, for the guns 
faced them as they were ordered to change front to the 
rear. 

So Lahore was saved by the decision of a soldier and a 
civilian, and when the movable column came in on the 
2nd of June, it was hailed with delight by all the Europeans, 
for they had been living in great anxiety. But the S5th. 
Native Infantry, which accompanied the column, seemed 
capable of mutiny. Chamberlain was employing spies to 
watch them, and one night — it was the 8th June — one of 
these spies awoke Roberts with the news that the 35th 
intended to revolt at daybreak, and that some of them 
had already loaded their muskets. 

At once the men were ordered to fall in, their arms were 
K 145 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

examined, and two muskets were found loaded. The two 
sepoys implicated were lodged promptly in the police 
station. 

A drum -head court-martial was called, of native officers 
drawn from Coke's Rifles just arrived, composed chiefly of 
Sikhs and Pathans. The prisoners were found guilty of 
mutiny and sentenced to death. Chamberlain decided 
they should be blown away from guns in the presence of 
their comrades, in order to strike fear into the rest. A 
parade was at once ordered. Three sides of a square 
were made up of the troops ; on the fourth side were two 
guns. 

As the prisoners were being brought to the parade, one 
of them asked Roberts, " Are we to be blown from guns, 
sahib ? " " Yes," was his reply. 

As they were being bound to the guns, one requested 
that some rupees he had on his person might be saved for 
his relations. 

" It is too late," answered the brigadier. The word of 
command was given, off" went the guns, and two human 
beings were no more. 

The sepoys in the ranks looked startled, but more crest- 
fallen than horrified. The scene they had witnessed did 
not deter them from escaping to Delhi. Coke's Pathans, 
however, in the 1st Punjab Infantry, were well known for 
loyalty and bravery, for they loved their leader, and he 
cared for them as a father. 

During the operations in the Kohat Pass in 1850, 
several of the men were killed and wounded. Among 
the latter was a Pathan named Mahomed Gul. He was 
shot in two places through the body, and as Coke sat by 
him while he was dying, he said, with a smile on his face : 
" Sahib, I am happy ; but promise me one thing — 
don't let my old mother want. I leave her to your 
care." 

"War mingles together in strange contrast the hideous 
and the beautiful, the savage and the gentle elements of 

146 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

human nature. The politician, sitting quietly at home, 
votes for war too often without realising all the horrors 
and sorrows which the soldier feels very keenly. The 
movable column remained some days at Lahore : many 
places claimed its presence, being more or less disturbed. 

At Ferozepur the native regiments had broken out on 
the 13th May, and tried to seize the arsenal, which was the 
largest in Upper India. 

Multan seemed very unsettled, but fortunately was in 
the hands of an able and experienced officer, Major Crauford 
Chamberlain. Multan was a very important post, as it 
commanded our communications with Southern India and 
the sea. Chamberlain found out that his irregular cavalry 
were loyal, the artillery doubtful, the infantry ready to 
mutiny at any time. 

Night after night sepoys, disguised, tried to persuade 
the cavalry to join them. A plot was raised to murder 
Chamberlain and his family. This plot was frustrated by 
men of the cavalry, but it became clear that the only 
remedy was to disarm. But how ? there were only a few 
European troops near, gunners. 

At this juncture Sir John Lawrence sent the 2nd Punjab 
Infantry, and Major Hughes, on his own initiative, sent 
from Asia the 1st Punjab Cavalry. At 4 a.m. next morn- 
ing the native regiments were marched out and halted at 
about a quarter of a mile away ; then the Punjab troops 
moved quietly between them and their lines, thus cutting 
them off from their ammunition. A selected body of Sikhs 
was told off to cut down the native gunners if they refused 
to obey orders ; then Major Chamberlain rode up to the 
Native Infantry regiments, and explained why he was going 
to disarm them. 

*' Pile arms ! " the word of command rang out sharply. 

But a sepoy of the 62nd shouted, " Don't give up your 
arms : fight for them."" Then Lieutenant Thomson, the 
adjutant of the regiment, seized the rebel by the throat, 
and wrestling, threw him heavily to the ground. 

147 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

The order was repeated, and this time it was obeyed. 

The Punjab troops remained on the parade-ground until 
the arms had been collected and carted off to the fort. 

Lord Roberts says : " It was a most critical time, and 
enough credit has never been given to] Major Crauford 
Chamberlain. He was very insufficiently rewarded for this 
timely act of heroism." 

Umritsar, being a very important place and on the road 
to Jullundur, where the authorities had taken no steps to 
disarm the sepoys, was the next point on which the column 
moved. It was reached on the 11th June. 

There a telegram came to Neville Chamberlain, offering 
him the adjutant-generalship of the army, since Colonel 
Chester had been killed before Delhi. He accepted the 
offer, and Roberts was eager to go with him, but he was 
told he must remain with the column. Roberts^ first dis- 
appointment was tempered by content when he heard 
that Chamberlain's successor was to be his friend, John 
Nicholson. 

Then the column moved on Jullundur, which was 
reached on 20th June. The place was in great confusion, 
the sepoys having been allowed to break into the treasury, 
plunder right and left, and then get safely over the wide 
Sutlej in a ferry : all this for fear of hurting the feelings of 
the sepoy ! The commissioner. Major Edward Lake, who 
had repeatedly urged Brigadier Johnstone to deprive the 
sepoys of their arms, now accepted the offer of the Rajah of 
Kapurthala to garrison Jullundur with his own troops. 
And all through the Mutiny the Rajah loyally stood by us 
and kept the road open, though his general took the oppor- 
tunity at this moment to show his scorn of our feebleness. 
But how he was reproved and humiliated by John Nicholson 
we may defer to another chapter. 

On taking over command, Nicholson organised a part of 
his force into a small fl}'ing column ready to go anywhere at 
a moment's notice. Though Nicholson had spent most of 
his time as a civilian of the frontier, yet Lord Roberts says, 

148 



THE YOUNG GUNNER 

"He was a born commander, and this was felt by every 
officer and man with the cokmnn before he had been amongst 
them many days." The cokimn left Jullundur on the 24th 
June, and next morning it was thought necessary to disarm 
the 35th, as the native troops were too numerous. It was 
a great surprise to both British officers and men when the 
35th were suddenly brought to face the unlimbered guns, 
and the order to " pile arms "" was given. 

However, the commandant, Major Younghusband, 
looked relieved and was heard to murmur, " Thank God ! " 
He had been with this regiment thirty-three years, through 
the first Afghan War and at Sale's defence of Jallalabad : 
but perhaps he was now glad they were to be saved from 
disgracing the regiment. The sepoys threw down muskets 
and belts without a murmur. Then came the turn of the 
33rd regiment : but the British officers in this case pro- 
tested, for they believed in the loyalty of their men. 
Colonel Sandeman had been with them thirty-two years, 
and had commanded them through the Sutlej campaign. 
They were all his pride ! On hearing the general's order, 
he exclaimed : " What ! disarm my regiment ! I will answer 
with my life for the loyalty of every man ! " 

" On my repeating the order," says Lord Roberts, " the 
poor old fellow burst into tears." 

Shortly after this, when Roberts was in the Philour fort 
with Nicholson, the telegraph- signaller gave him a copy of 
a message from Sir Henry Barnard, the new commander-in- 
chief, asking that all artillery officers not doing regimental 
duty might be sent to Delhi. 

Roberts realised that his hopes might now be fulfilled, 
though he did not like the idea of leaving Nicholson. 
Nicholson, too, did not wish to lose Roberts ; but as 
soon as his deputy could be found, Roberts started for 
Delhi. 

In a mail-cart he rattled across the bridge of boats for 
Ludhiana, and while he rested there in the hospitable 
bungalow of the deputy commissioner, George Ricketts, 

149 



FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS 

he heard the tale of what the mutineers had done after 
breaking away from Jullundur. Ricketts, it appears, 
had gallantly opposed the rebels with a few men of the 
4th Sikhs and two guns : he could have stopped their 
crossing the Sutlej if the Jullundur force had given any 
help. 

It was ever the same tale — heroic deeds done by many ; 
foolish, ignorant or lazy counsels followed by a few, and 
mostly by elderly men, who ought to have retired and gone 
home before they were worn out. 

On the ^7th June, Roberts reached Umballa : on driving 
to the dak-bungalow he found it crowded with officers, all 
eager to get on to Delhi. When Roberts, the young 
gunner, expressed his intention of going on at once, they 
laughed heartily, " Not a seat to be had, my boy." 

But Roberts had a little talk with the postmaster ; and 
he said, "Make friends with Mr. Douglas Forsyth, the 
deputy commissioner." 

The result was that Roberts got a seat on an extra cart 
laden with small-arm ammunition. He was allowed to take 
two other men with him. These were Captain Law, who 
was killed on the 23rd July, after having greatly dis- 
tinguished himself, and Lieutenant Packe, lamed for life 
before he had been forty-eight hours in Delhi. 

Through Kurnal they drove and Panipat, where there 
was a strong force of Patiala and Jhind troops : but at 
Alipur, twelve miles from Delhi, the driver pulled up, 
shook his head and vowed he dared go no farther. 

So they took the mail-cart ponies, for a consideration, 
and rode on ; they heard the boom of guns and saw several 
dead bodies, already as dry as mummies. They had not 
the vaguest notion where the Ridge was, but luckily hit on 
the right road, got safely through the piquets and lay down 
for a long sleep. 

In part, from Lord Roberts' Forty-one Years in India^ by kind 
permission of the author. 

150 



CHAPTER VII 

LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI: IN 
THE GREAT SIEGE 

BEFORE recounting what befell Roberts at Delhi, we 
must give a short account of the events which 
preceded his arrival. 

Sir Henry Barnard had succeeded General Anson on 
the ^6th. May, but he was an utter stranger to India and 
had only been in the country a few weeks. He had been 
chief of the staff in the Crimea and was an energ-etic officer. 
He knew how the critics had blamed Anson for not attacking 
Delhi off-hand without guns or soldiers, and he recognised 
the difficulties of his position. Not waiting for his siege- 
train, he set out from Kurnal on the 27th May and reached 
Alipur on the 6th of June. 

Meanwhile, the Meerut force had been ordered to take 
the field, and when they came to a village close to the 
Hindun River on 30th May, a vedette reported that the 
enemy were coming in strength. The Rifles crossed the 
Hindun suspension-bridge and attacked, while the Cara- 
bineers forded the stream and turned the enemy's left. 
Seven hundred British soldiers attacked and defeated seven 
times their number, captured 5 guns and only lost 1 officer 
and 10 men. 

The intense heat prevented them from following up the 
victory : so it was that next day the sepoys returned to the 
battleground. 

They took up position on a ridge to the right of the 
Hindun, and opened fire from their guns on Wilson's force : 
for two hours there was an artillery duel, then Wilson 

15X 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

ordered a general advance. The sepoys retreated with their 
guns to Delhi, our men being too prostrated by the heat 
to follow. 

Among our wounded was an ensign of the 60th Rifles, 
a boy named Napier, full of gallantry and vigour and much 
liked by his men. He had been hit in the leg, and when 
he was brought into camp, it was amputated. When the 
operation was over, the poor boy murmured to himself, 
" I shall never lead the Rifles again — never lead the Rifles 
again." He felt his career was so soon over and he must 
leave the regiment he loved. 

There was some satisfaction felt in camp that the 
Meerut Brigade had, after all, been the first to retaliate 
on the sepoys. 

The next day, 1st June, Wilson's force was strengthened 
by the arrival of the 2nd Gurkhas, 500 strong, commanded 
by Major Charles Reid. 

On the 7th of June this force joined Barnard's at 
Alipur, and the Meerut men were loudly cheered as they 
marched into camp with the captured guns. 

On the 8th, Hodson reported that the rebels were in 
force half-way between Alipur and Delhi, at Badli-ki- 
Serai, where many large houses and walled gardens supplied 
good means of defence. The rebels' guns were of heavier 
calibre than ours, and it became necessary to charge them. 
When Hope Grant with cavalry and horse artillery 
appeared on their rear, they fell back. The Lancers 
kept charging the retreating sepoys till they abandoned 
their guns and retired in disorder within the walls of the 
city. 

Then Barnard turned to the Ridge overlooking Delhi, 
drove away the rebels posted there and encamped on a 
favourable position on the top. The rebels had lost 350 men, 
26 guns and ammunition. 

The next day the Guides, led by Colonel Daly, were 
cheered on their arrival. Let us give a few words about 
the Ridge and the city of Delhi 

35^ 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

The Ridge rises 60 feet above the city ; its left rested 
on the Jumna, generally too deep to ford, and wide enough 
to prevent our being enfiladed. On the right of the Ridge, 
bazaars, buildings, woods and garden walls afforded covet 
to the enemy when they made a sortie : the Ridge at this 
end was about 1200 yards from the city walls, at the Flag- 
staff Tower about a mile a half, and at the end near the 
river nearly two miles and a half. 

The Flagstaff Tower in the centre of the Ridge was the 
general rendezvous for the sick and wounded; the tower 
was 150 feet high, approached by a winding staircase. The 
main piquet was established at Hindu Rao's house, a 
large stone building once belonging to a Mahratta prince. 
The city is surrounded on three sides by a lofty stone wall, 
five and a half miles long ; the fourth side, two miles long, is 
covered by the river, and bridges and ferries gave the 
besieged means of procuring food from the country. The 
walls were mounted with 114 pieces of heavy artillery 
supplied with plenty of ammunition. In addition, the 
garrison of 40,000 sepoys had 60 pieces of field artillery, 
and their gunners had been trained by the English. 

To meet this force the English general had at this time 
a little more than 3000 soldiers, some Gurkhas and the 
Guides with 22 field guns. On our rear was a canal with a 
splendid supply of water. 

As we have stated before, the Guides had to fight on 
their first afternoon and lost Quintin Battye close up to 
the walls. 

Lord Roberts says : " I spent a few hours with him on 
my way to Delhi, and I remember how his handsome face 
glowed when he talked of the opportunities for distinguish- 
ing themselves in store for the Guides. Proud of his 
regiment, and beloved by his men, who were captivated by 
his many soldierly qualities, he had every prospect before 
him of a splendid career, but he was destined to fall in 
his first fight. He was curiously fond of quotations, and his 
last words were ' Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.' " 

153 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

The few heavy guns were placed in position on the 
Ridge, but were soon found inferior to those of the enemy ; 
ammunition, too, was so scarce that a reward was offered for 
every 24-pounder shot which could be picked up. 

The rebels thought that they could persuade the 
Gurkhas to join them, and as the latter advanced they called 
out, " We are not firing ; we want to speak to you, we want 
you to join us." The little, stubborn Gurkhas replied : 
" Oh yes, we are coming, wait a bit — we are coming to 
you." 

Then, when within twenty paces of the sepoys they fired 
a volley and killed nearly 80 of them. 

Every day attacks were made, sometimes on Hindu 
Rao's house in the centre of our position, sometimes on 
the Flagstaff Tower : on one occasion they crept up in a fog 
and nearly succeeded in taking the guns. 

With so few men the work grew very toilsome, and the 
men were seldom off duty. General Barnard felt that his 
force was unequal to the task of taking Delhi by a coup de 
main, but he had written instructions from Lord Canning 
and Sir John Lawrence to make short work of Delhi. 
Those gentlemen, at a convenient distance, were sure that 
the city could be taken. 

The perplexed general consulted his Engineers, and three 
of them drew up a plan of assault for the 12th June. The 
young officers were Greathed, Maunsell, and Chesney of the 
Engineers and Hodson of Hodson's Horse. 

The scheme was kept so secret that even the com- 
manding Engineer was not informed of it. Practically 
the whole force was to be engaged, divided into three 
columns — one to enter by the Kashmir gate, the second 
by the Lahore gate and the third was to attempt an 
escalade. 

The troops assembled between one and two in the 
morning, but Brigadier Graves with his 300 Europeans was 
absent, and the assault was postponed. 

Graves had received no written orders, and as the verbal 

154 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

notice sent him would have involved his leaving the Flag- 
staff piquet in the hands of natives, he wisely declined to 
act upon it. All military critics agree in thinking this a 
merciful relief: the attacking party must have been re- 
pulsed ; a repulse would have involved the destruction of 
the besieging force, and perhaps the loss of all India. This 
critical position was the result of civilians at a distance 
presuming to dictate to the general on the spot. 

On the 14th June, General Reed arrived on the Ridge 
to assume command : for a time, owing to ill-health, he did 
not supersede Barnard. 

But the question of a coup de main was discussed in 
Reed's tent for several days, and finally the senior officers 
voted against it. 

On the 17th, we had to attack in two columns to 
prevent the enemy from completing a battery that would 
enfilade our position. Tombs had two horsey killed under 
him, making five so far ; he drove the rebels away and blew 
up a mosque which they had seized. 

On the 18th, the rebels were reinforced by more 
mutineers with six guns : they celebrated the event by a 
fierce attack on our rear, which nearly succeeded ; but 
Reed, the Gurkhas and 60th Rifles held on steadily and saved 
the situation. 

The 23rd June, the hundredth anniversary of Plassey, 
was celebrated by a desperate attempt on the part of the 
sepoys to get their prophecy fulfilled : thousands rushed 
against a mere handful of men on our right ; again Reed 
stood firm. After the 23rd the attacks were pushed home 
with less vigour. 

On the 24th, Neville Chamberlain came from the Punjab 
to take the post of adjutant-general, and reinforcements 
raised our strength to 6600 men. On the 28th June, Roberts 
had come tired into camp and thrown himself down in the 
tent of his friend Norman. 

Next morning he awoke, full of questions and eager to 
hear everything. He found that Harry Tombs, ot the 

155 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

Bengal Horse Artillery, was so far the hero of the hour — a 
handsome man and a thorough soldier. 

After visiting the tents of Edwin Johnson and General 
Chamberlain and Sir Henry Barnard, to find out what his 
post was to be, it was settled Roberts was to be D. A.Q.M.G. 
with the artillery ; which was the post he desired. 

Once more the question of an assault was opened ; the 
date 3rd July was fixed for it, and at 3 a.m. there arrived 
on the Ridge Baird-Smith, of the Engineers, destined to take 
a foremost place in the taking of Delhi. 

But the assault had again to be postponed, as the enemy 
had planned a sortie for that day. On the 5th July, General 
Barnard was attacked by cholera and General Reed assumed 
command. 

On the 9th July the rebels sent the regiment which had 
mutinied at Bareilly through the right of the British camp, 
by the rear ; as their uniform was the same as our irregulars 
they were allowed to pass unchallenged. They had put to 
flight some young soldiers of the Carabineers when James 
Hills, one of the most daring soldiers in the world (later 
Sir James Hills-Johns) ordered out his two guns for 
action. But the enemy were upon him and he had no time 
to fire ; so, determined at all costs to stop the foe and give 
his men time to load and fire a round of grape, he charged 
the head of the column single-handed, cutting down the 
leading men, and slashing at the second : then two sepoys 
rode at him and rolled over his horse. It had been raining 
heavily and Hills wore his cloak, which saved his life, for 
it was cut through in many places, as were his jacket and 
shirt ! To pick himself up and find his sword was the work 
of a moment : but three men now came on, two mounted ; 
the first sowar he shot, the second he ran through the body 
after seizing his lance in his left hand, the third man, on 
foot, wrenched his sword from him : twice his pistol missed 
fire, then Hills closed with the man and hit him in the face 
with his fists, but fell and would have been killed after all, 
had not Tombs cut his way through the enemy and, seeing 

156 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

Hills' danger, taken a shot with his pistol at thirty yards, 
which killed the native trooper. 

In spite of Hills' heroic attempt, his men never got a 
chance to fire a round ; for the sepoys were amongst them, 
and riding off to the native horse artillery called upon the 
men to join them and bring away the guns. But the 
native artillerymen loyally refused to join the rebels : by 
this time the camp was roused and the irregulars rode off 
with some loss. Tombs and Hills both received the 
Victoria Cross for their gallantry. 

At this moment Roberts was standing by his tent, 
watching with the interest of an owner his horses which had 
just arrived from Philour. They were crossing the bridge 
over the canal at the rear of the camp when the retiring 
sowars galloped over the bridge, not waiting to secure any 
loot. Roberts'* servants had marched 200 miles through a 
disturbed country and had brought horses and baggage 
in good order. 

Through the siege these servants behaved admirably : 
the khitmatgar never failed to bring his food under the 
hottest fire, and the syces (grooms) seemed quite indifferent 
to all risks wherever duty called them. v 

On the 14th July the rebels came out in great numbers, 
and had to be driven back : on reaching a wall lined with 
sepoys the troops stopped short, and Chamberlain, calling 
them to follow him, jumped his horse over the wall and 
got a ball in his shoulder. But the men did follow and 
the rebels were slowly driven away. Roberts was with two 
advanced guns on the grand trunk road : the subaltern 
was severely wounded, and a fine young sergeant being 
shot through the leg was being carried to a hut near the 
road. 

" Don't put him in there," shouted Roberts, " he will 
be left behind." 

Roberts, in the bursting of shells and crashing of 
branches, was not heard. The poor fellow was left in the 
hut, and, like other wounded, was murdered by the rebels. 

157 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

As Roberts was helping the drivers to keep the gun- 
horses quiet (several of them being wounded) he suddenly 
felt a tremendous blow on the back, which made him faint 
and sick : he just managed to stick on his saddle until he 
got back to camp. He had been hit close to the spine by 
a bullet : his life was saved by the fact that a leather pouch 
for caps, which he usually wore in front, had slipped round ; 
the bullet passed through this first and so was prevented 
from penetrating very far into his body. 

This wound kept Roberts on the sick-list for a fortnight : 
his tent, fortunately, was pitched close to that of Campbell 
Brown, surgeon to the artillery. The medical officers were 
clever and worked hard ; but the wounded had little shelter 
from sun and rain : chloroform was unknown, and anti- 
septics not yet heard of, and scarcely a single amputation 
case survived. 

It was difficult to get rid of the festering carcases of 
animals ; some were buried, and jackals and adjutants 
worked without pay to remove the nuisance. On the 
17th July, General Reed's health broke down and he had to 
leave the camp. General Wilson assumed command, and 
was earnestly requested by Baird-Smith not to think of 
raising the siege : " We must maintain the grip we now 
have on Delhi." In consequence General Wilson ordered 
up a siege-train from Ferozepur ; he also gave the troops 
relief by introducing order and method into their various 
duties, by caring for their health and recreation. He also 
put a stop to the practice of following up the enemy close 
to the city walls when repulsed — for this practice had led 
to many casualties from sharp-shooters. 

About the SOth July, Roberts lost a cousin by an acci- 
dental shot. Captain Greensill of the 24th Foot was recon- 
noitring after dark, and on drawing near the enemy's position 
he halted his escort and went forward alone to examine the 
ground. He had given his men a signal by which they 
might recognise his approach; but this was apparently 
misunderstood, for as he came up in the dark the escort 

158 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

fired. The poor fellow died in great agony the next 
morning. 

As to news, the besiegers regularly received letters from 
England by the Punjab, but for several weeks they had no 
news from the South. 

Sometimes one of Hodson's spies would come in with a 
scrap of thin paper written on in Greek letters, sewn 
between the soles of his shoe, or twisted in his hair. How 
eagerly these missives were deciphered ! A fight at Agra ! 
Allahabad still safe ! Lucknow holding out ! troops at 
Calcutta from Madras, Ceylon, Mauritius ! Lord Elgin 
diverts a force on way to China ! 

But they never heard a word from Cawnpur, nor of the 
death of General Wheeler, nor Sir Henry Lawrence ; but 
thought Wheeler was coming to their aid. At length 
Norman, on the 15th July, addressed a letter written in 
French to Wheeler at Cawnpur : two sepoys of the 
Guides took it, delivered it faithfully to General Havelock 
at Cawnpur and returned with his reply on the 3rd 
August. 

In this he acquaints General Reed with Wheeler's fate ; 
states he has orders to relieve Lucknow ; informs him that 
Sir Henry Somerset is commander-in-chief in India, and 
Sir Patrick Grant in Bengal ; and speaks of his own 
victories. 

Two days afterwards Colonel Fraser-Tytler's letter 
came from Cawnpur to Captain Earle : " Havelock has 
thrashed the Nana . . . will relieve Lucknow in four days . . . 
we shall soon be with you." This sanguine prophecy was 
a failure ! Instead of four days it took four months to 
relieve Lucknow, and no troops from Cawnpur came to 
Delhi. 

On the 14th August, Nicholson's column arrived, and 
hopes began to spring up ; for this brought up the effective 
strength to about 8000 rank and file. 

The rebels knew more than the British did : they knew 
Havelock had been obliged to fall back upon Cawnpur, 

159 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

and that a siege-train was not far off. So they decided to 
make a supreme effort to capture the big guns, and pro- 
ceeded in the direction of Najafgarh on the 24th August. 

The following morning at daybreak Nicholson started 
to catch the rebels and bring them to action ; he had with 
him 16 horse artillery guns, 1600 infantry and 450 cavalry. 
Nicholson requested to have Roberts as his staff officer, 
but this was refused, as he was still on the sick-list. 

A twelve hours' march through swamps and marches 
brought them, weary and wet, at 4 p.m. near the rebels, 
covered by guns and deep water. 

But Nicholson, nothing daunted, led his men across the 
ford, breast-high : Tombs and Remington did good work 
with their batteries, and a plucky charge drove the sepoys 
from their strong position ; they made for a bridge over 
the canal, but Nicholson caught them, killed 800 and took 
13 guns. 

Though reinforcements and able leaders had come to 
the Ridge, yet at the beginning of September there were 
3000 sick in hospital ! 

Baird-Smith was emphatic and decisive for an assault 
before disease could still further weaken the attack. He 
said they must think of the Punjab which Lawrence had 
denuded of troops for their benefit. If delay should 
induce the native princes to take part against us, as was 
probable, then all India would be lost, at least for a 
time. 

Wilson, ill and anxious, had long been hesitating, 
waiting for help from the South : now he knew that help 
would never come. Baird-Smith was strongly backed up 
by Nicholson, Daly, Hodson, Norman, and Alec Taylor. 

Lord Roberts says he was sitting in Nicholson's tent 
before he set out to attend the council. In a confidential 
talk, Nicholson startled his friend by saying : " Delhi must 
be taken, and it is absolutely essential that this should be 
done at once ; and if Wilson hesitates longer, I intend to 
propose at to-day's meeting that he should be superseded." 

160 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

Roberts replied that as Chamberlain was hors de 
combat from his wound, Wilson's removal would leave 
him, Nicholson, senior officer with the force. To this 
Nicholson replied, he had thought of that and should 
propose that the command should be given to Campbell 
of the 52nd. 

Fortunately so drastic a measure was not needed : 
Wilson agreed to the assault. For some time Taylor, 
second in command of the Engineers, had been scouting 
and measuring and drawing plans for the breaching- 
batteries : a battery was constructed to prevent sorties 
from the Lahore and Kabul gates ; it was also there placed 
to make the rebels think our assault would be from the 
right of the Ridge, whereas it had been resolved to attack 
from the left, where the men could approach nearer to 
the walls under cover and where the river completely 
protected our left flank. 

As Baird-Smith was ill, the responsibility fell on Taylor, 
a practical Engineer, alert and cheerful and trusted fully by 
all working under him. The evening of the 7th September 
was fixed for the tracing of the batteries. No. 1 battery 
was placed below the Ridge within 700 yards of the 
Mori bastion; this bastion was at the north-west corner 
of the walls, mounting eight guns. The right section 
of the battery to be commanded by Major Brind, "a 
real hero of the siege,'"* as Malleson says; the left by 
Major Kaye. 

The Engineers worked all night with such energy that 
on the morning of the 8th, when as yet only one gun was 
mounted, the enemy discovered Brind's section and opened 
upon it a deadly fire of shot and grape. By the afternoon, 
as new guns were mounted, the rebels' fire was crushed 
and the Mori bastion became a heap of ruins. 

Kaye, too, was doing good work against the Kashmir 

bastion, until the half-battery caught fire from the constant 

discharge of guns. At once the rebels opened fire upon 

the burning battery, and it looked as if the hard work of 

L 161 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

three days would be thrown away. But the battery was 
saved from destruction by the gallantry of Lieutenant 
Lockhart, who, with two companies of the 2nd Gurkhas, 
carried sandbags to the top, cut them and smothered the 
fire with sand. Two of the Gurkhas were shot dead; 
Lockhart, shot through the jaw, rolled over the parapet ; 
but the fire was extinguished. 

No. 2 battery was erected in front of Ludlow Castle, 
nearer the river and about 500 yards from the Kashmir 
gate, in order to destroy the bastion, to knock away the 
parapet to the right and left that gave cover to the rebels, 
and lastly, to open a breach for the storm ers. 

By this time the enemy began to see that the assault 
would be on the left near the river, and did their utmost 
to check the erection of the batteries, mounting heavy 
guns along the northern face. 

No. 3 battery, traced by Medley and commanded by 
Scott, was placed within 160 yards of the Water bastion 
and was finished by the night of the 11th. During the 
first night of its construction thirty-nine men were killed — 
Gurkhas. As man after man was knocked over, "they 
would stop a moment, weep a little over a fallen friend," 
says Forrest, place his body in a row along with the rest 
and then set to work again. No. 4 battery, half-way 
between 2 and 3, armed with ten heavy mortars, was 
commanded by Tombs. 

It was to No. 2 battery that Roberts was posted, and 
he had charge of two guns. At eight o'clock on the 
morning of the 11th September they opened fire on the 
Kashmir bastion, and as the shots told and the stones 
flew into the air and rattled down, a loud cheer came 
from the artillerymen and others who had volunteered to 
work in the batteries. 

But the enemy also had got the range very accurately, 
and as soon as the screen in front of the right gun was 
removed, a round shot came through the embrasure, 
knocking over Roberts and three others. " On regaining 

162 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

my feet," Roberts says, " I found that the young artillery- 
man, who was serving the vent while I was laying the 
gun, had had his right arm taken off/' 

In the evening, as they were taking a short rest in the 
shelter of the battery after the exhausting work and the 
heat, a shower of grape came down upon them, severely 
wounding the commander. Major Campbell : Edwin Johnson 
then took his place. 

How terrible the work of bombarding was, carried on 
night and day, we may realise from the fact that these 
men never left their batteries until the day of the assault 
— the 14th — except to go by turns into Ludlow Castle, 
just behind the battery, for their meals. The roar of big 
guns and mortars was incessant, the rain of shot and shell 
on the city must have given the mutineers some sense of 
coming disaster. 

But the rebels, on their side, had made an advanced 
trench in one night, only 350 yards from our left attack : 
this they lined with infantry and enfiladed our batteries : 
they sent rockets from their martello towers and left no 
part of our attack unsearched by their fire. 

Three months' practice had made our men skilful in 
taking cover, but yet we lost 327 officers and men between 
the 7th and 14th September. On the evening of the 
13th, Nicholson went down to see whether the gunners 
had done their work thoroughly enough to warrant an 
assault on the morrow. After a careful look he turned 
and said with a smile : " I must shake hands with you 
fellows ; you have done your best to make my work easy 
to-morrow." 

Taylor, too, who accompanied Nicholson, seemed well 
pleased with the results; for, soon after, he and Baird- 
Smith advised General Wilson that the breaches were 
sufficient : so Wilson ordered they should be closely examined. 
Four subaltern officers of Engineers were detailed to go 
to the walls after dark and report upon their condition : 
this dangerous duty was given to Greathed and Home for 

163 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

the Water bastion, Medley and Lang for the Kashmir 
bastion. 

Lang wished to go and examine the breach while there 
was light : Taylor agreed. So, with an escort of four men 
of the 60th Rifles, Lang crept to the edge of the cover, 
and then running up the glacis, sat on the top of the 
counter-scarp for a few seconds, studying the ditch and 
the two breaches. He returned with the report that the 
breaches were practicable, but had to go again after 
dark with Medley to ascertain if ladders would be 
necessary. 

Lang slipped into the ditch with a measuring rod, which 
gave 16 feet ; Medley handed him the ladder and followed 
with two riflemen, four others remaining on the crest of 
the glacis to cover their retreat. By using the ladder they 
ascended the ditch and measured the height of the wall. 
In two minutes they would have reached the top of the 
breach, but in spite of all precautions they had been heard, 
and the noise of running sepoys came to their ears. Then 
they climbed up the ditch as quickly as possible and threw 
themselves down on the grass, hoping the sepoys would 
go away, and they might try once more to get to the top 
of the breach. But as the rebels remained chattering and 
listening, they resolved to run for it: a volley was fired 
as they dashed across the open, but fortunately no one 
was hit. 

Greathed and Home reached the Water bastion and 
examined their breach successfully ; and by midnight Baird- 
Smith made his report to the general, and at the same time 
advised him strongly to order the assault for the coming 
morning. So the order was given for the storming of 
Delhi a little before daybreak; and in every tent men 
were making ready, re-loading pistols, filling flasks, winding 
puggrees round their forage caps, and giving, friend to 
friend, instructions, "if I fall." A httle after midnight 
they were bidden to fall in as quietly as possible, and by 
the light of a winking lantern the orders for the assault 

164 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

were read to the men. Any officer or man who should be 
wounded was to be left where he fell ! for there were no 
men to spare. No plundering ! all prizes to be put into 
common stock for fair division. No prisoners ! No women 
or children to be hurt ! 

" No fear, sir ! '' murmured the men. Then in some 
cases a priest or chaplain came up and offered a short 
prayer for success as they waited till all were ready. 

There were four columns of attack : Nicholson led the 
first ; Brigadier W. Jones, the second ; Colonel Campbell, 
the third; Major Reid, the fourth. 

The fifth, or reserve column, was to support the first 
column, or any that required help, and was led by Colonel 
Longfield. Many of the sick and wounded were used for 
the protection of the camp. 

A delay was caused by having to wait for the men who 
had been on piquet all night ; also it was necessary to 
batter down some of the repairs made in the night to the 
breaches. While this was being done the infantry lay 
down under cover; the sun rose, the breaching guns ceased, 
Nicholson gave the signal, and the 60th Rifles with a cheer 
dashed forward in skirmishing order ; meanwhile the other 
columns moved forward. But the rebels were on the look 
out and sent a storm of bullets into the mass ; and officers 
and men fell thick on the crest of the glacis. 

While our men stood at the edge of the ditch, waiting 
for more ladders, dusky figures crowded on the breach, 
hurled stones and insulting epithets and dared our men 
to cross. Then came a rush, a climb, a struggle ; many 
fine men were ruined for life or killed in the breach, but 
the rebels gave way and the ramparts were ours. 

No. £ column also carried the breach at the Water 
bastion ; but of the 39 men who carried the ladders, 29 
dropped in as many seconds. The ladders were picked up 
by their comrades and placed against the escarp : the 
supports by mistake got on to the rampart ; but Jones, 
seizing the situation, cleared the ramparts as far as the 

165 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

Kabul gate, on the summit of which he planted the column 
flag, presented in 1877 to Queen Victoria. 

No. S column advanced towards the Kashmir gate in the 
face of a heavy fire and halted. 

Lieutenants Home and Salkeld with 8 sappers and miners 
and a bugler set out to blow the gate open ; each carried 
25 lb. of powder. 

The rebels wondered what so small a party were going to 
do, and slackened lire ; but very soon opened a deadly fire 
from the top of the gateway, the city wall, and the open 
wicket. The bridge over the ditch had been destroyed ; 
a single beam remained, over which Home and his men 
crossed with difficulty. 

How the gate was blown in has been already described 
in Chapter IV. 

When Campbell got inside he found Nicholson's and 
Jones' columns, and together they poured into the open 
space between the Kashmir gate and the church. 

The fourth column under Reid had to start without their 
four H.A. guns; Reid himself was wounded in the head, 
but managed to send for Captain Lawrence and gave him 
the command. But the rebels were strongly posted on the 
banks of the canal, and indeed threatened to break into our 
weakly-guarded camp, but just at the critical moment Hope 
Grant brought up the cavalry brigade, and No. 4 column 
were enabled to retire in an orderly manner. 

Meanwhile Nicholson pushed on along the foot of the 
walls to the right towards the Lahore gate past the Kabul 
gate and Burn bastion. To do this he had to force his way 
through a lane 200 yards long where every building was 
manned with sharpshooters ; the city wall was on his right, 
on his left flat-roofed houses with parapets sheltering rebels. 
He might have maintained his position at the Kabul gate, 
but thinking that the repulse of No. 4 would encourage the 
rebels, he cried, " Boys, storm the lane and take those two 
guns in front." They charged, recoiled, and charged again ; 
Greville spiked the first gun. Lieutenant Butler got beyond 

166 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

the second gun. But the grape and round-shot were too 
much for mortal men. Jacobs of the 1st Fusiliers was 
mortally wounded. Wemyss, Greville, Caulfield, Speke, 
Woodcock, Butler were in turn struck down. The men, 
discouraged by the fall of their officers, were falling back a 
second time, when the clear-sounding voice of Nicholson 
called them to follow their general. But even as he turned 
to address them he was shot through the back and chest. 

Though he felt the wound was mortal, nothing could yet 
quench the ardour of his spirit ; he still called on his men 
to come on. But it was in vain ; already 8 officers and 50 
men had fallen in this attempt. The only thing was to 
fall back on the Kabul gate. 

The result of the first day's operations was that we had 
won the entire space from the Water bastion by the river to 
the Kabul gate, being the north side of the city walls; 
while the fourth column, outside the city, held the batteries 
behind Hindu Rao's house. But the price paid was high. 

In the day's fight we had lost 66 officers and 1104 men ; 
the rebels were still very strong in numbers, in guns, in 
position ; and they had had their measure of success and 
had no need to despair. 

All this time Roberts was with General Wilson at 
Ludlow Castle on staff duty. Wilson watched the assault 
from the top of the house ; and, seeing the success of the 
assaulting columns, he rode through the Kashmir gate to 
the church, and there stayed for the remainder of the day. 

The general was ill and worn out with toil and anxiety, 
and as reports of disaster kept coming in, he grew more and 
more depressed. The failure of Reid and the 4th column, 
the fall of Nicholson, and the false report that Hope Grant 
and Tombs were killed — all this so distressed him that he 
began to consider the advisability of falling back again on 
the Ridge. Roberts was ordered to go and find out the 
truth of these reports and ascertain what had happened to 
No. 4 column. 

While riding on his errand through the Kashmir gate 

167 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

Roberts saw by the side of the road a dhoolie without 
bearers. He dismounted to see if there was a wounded 
officer inside, and perceived to his grief and consternation 
that it was John Nicholson, with death written on his 
face. 

" The bearers — have gone off to plunder — I am in great 
pain — I should like to be taken to the hospital," the 
wounded man gasped out. 

" Not seriously wounded, John, I hope ? " 

" I am dying ; there is no chance for me." 

"The sight of that great man lying helpless and on 
the point of death," says Lord Roberts, " was almost more 
than I could bear. Other men had daily died around 
me . . . but I never felt as I felt then — to lose Nicholson 
seemed to me at that moment to lose everything." 

It took Roberts some time to find four men, whom 
he put in charge of a sergeant of the 61st Foot : he took 
down the sergeant"'s name, told him who the wounded 
officer was, and ordered him to go direct to the field 
hospital. Continuing his ride, Roberts came up with Hope 
Grant's brigade, and was very glad to find him and Tombs 
unhurt, and Hodson cheery and Probyn in high spirits 
at commanding his squadron. 

So Roberts galloped back to Wilson with the good 
news, which did a little cheer him ; but the heavy list 
of casualties came in later and seemed to crush all spirit 
out of him : he would have withdrawn from the city in 
spite of the opposing opinions of every officer on his staff, 
had not Baird-Smith come up, looking very ill and wasted 
by disease and suffering fearful pain from his wound. 

" Now, Baird-Smith, shall we hold on or retire ? " asked 
the general. 

" Sir, we must hold on," was the reply given in so loud 
and determined a tone that Wilson shrugged his shoulders 
and said no more. 

Neville Chamberlain, Daly, and Khan Sing Rosa, a dis- 
tinguished officer of the Guides, all incapacitated by wounds, 

168 * 




Jo^m pl^7>ptelL,ii», 



Lieutenant Roberts finding General Nicholson 

Riding through the Kashmir Gate after the capture of Delhi, Roberts saw a doolie 
lying at the roadside without bearers. He dismounted, and drawing aside the curtains 
saw, to his surprise and grief, General Nicholson lying mortally wounded. 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

were watching the assault from the top of Hindu Rao"'s 
house : to Chamberlain, Wilson sent two notes, asking 
his advice. Chamberlain urged the necessity for holding 
on to the last. 

Nicholson, though slowly dying, when told of General 
Wilson's wish to retire to the Ridge, cried, " No ! no ! 
thank God I have strength yet to shoot him, if necessary ! '' 

While such were the varying opinions of the besiegers, 
they little knew what emotions had been stirred in the 
hearts of the besieged by the capture of the walls and 
bastions and the calm bivouacking of the British within 
the city. The king and his counsellors were panic- 
stricken : the sepoys had had all the heart taken out of 
them by the terrible street fighting. If we had retired, 
all these advantages would have been thrown away. And 
they very nearly were ! 

But at length Wilson braced up his courage and 
decided to remain. In the afternoon of the 14th, Norman, 
Johnson, and Roberts were sent to visit every position 
occupied by our troops within the city. 

They found great confusion naturally — men without 
officers, officers without men, and all without instructions. 
For three weak columns had been set to do the impossible ; 
but they had done what was possible in gallant style. 
While riding along they were suddenly attacked from a 
side lane : but fortunately one of our piquets heard the 
firing and came running up to help. " In the scrimmage 
my poor mare was shot," says Roberts; "her death was 
a great loss to me at the time." 

The magazine, the palace, and the fort of Salimgarh, 
all fortified, still remained in the enemies' hands, as well 
as the densely populated city. The general and his staff 
spent the night in Skinner's house near the church : 
whether the rebels were tired, or from whatever cause, 
the outworn troops were allowed to enjoy a peaceful 
and restful night, and awoke refreshed. The 15th was 
employed in restoring order, breaking wine-bottles, and 

169 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

preparations for shelling the city: the sepoys gave little 
trouble. 

On the 16th the rebels evacuated Kishanganj, whence 
on the 14th they had repulsed the fourth column : the 
British stormed and took the magazine, so heroically 
defended, and partially blown up by Willoughby on the 
11th of May. 

On the 17th and 18th the bank was taken and the 
besiegers' posts were brought close to the palace : but 
it became necessary to take the Lahore gate, which was 
strongly held by the rebels, and was commanded by the 
Burn bastion. It was then that Alec Taylor besought 
the general to allow him to work his way from house 
to house to the Burn bastion. 

The general assented, knowing now that what Taylor 
promised he would perform. Roberts was placed under 
Taylor, and they had with them 50 Europeans and 50 
native soldiers, the senior officer being Captain Gordon 
of the 75th Foot. For hours these men worked like moles 
through houses, courtyards, and lanes, clearing all before 
them, where any natives were left, until on the afternoon 
of the 19th they found themselves in rear of the Burn 
bastion. Only one door now separated them from the 
lane leading to this bastion : Lang, of the Engineers, 
burst it open and the others followed at a rush up the 
ramp, surprising the guard and capturing the bastion 
without the loss of a man. 

Early in the morning of 20th September, as they were 
sapping their way towards the Lahore gate, they came 
upon some 50 hanias (grain merchants) huddled together 
and unarmed. 

Instead of killing these inoffensive people, Taylor made 
a bargain with them, "Your lives shall be spared if you 
will conduct us safely to some spot from which we may 
observe how the Lahore gate is guarded." 

After a long discussion among themselves they agreed 
that two of their party should guide Lang and Roberts, 

170 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

while the rest remained as hostages, to be shot if the two 
officers did not return. 

In a panic the two guides led on from house to house 
and along secluded alleys, without meeting a single living 
person, until at last they brought the officers to the upper 
room of a house which looked out on the Chandni Chauk, 
or Silver Bazaar, the main street of Delhi, close to the 
Lahore gate. From the window of this room Lang and 
Roberts saw sepoys lounging about or cleaning their 
muskets, and sentries by the gateway and two guns. 

The two banias were so afraid of anything untoward 
happening to the officers that they insisted on reconnoitring 
every house before entering : in consequence there was 
such delay that they found their friends ready to shoot 
the hostages, because they believed the guides had behaved 
treacherously. 

Then the hundred men were guided along the same 
route and drawn up behind a gateway next to the house 
from which Roberts had seen the sentries. Suddenly the 
gate was flung open, the party rushed into the street, 
captured the guns, and killed or put to flight the sepoys. 

This was a worthy achievement, for it gave possession 
of the street which led from the Lahore gate to the palace 
and the mosque. 

Up this street Roberts and his men proceeded ; finding 
it absolutely empty, except for the signs of looting, they 
pushed on to the Delhi Bank. A couple of guns outside 
the palace were sending round-shot about, but soon ceased 
firing: for the great Mahommedan mosque had just been 
taken by a column under Major James Brind, and Ensign 
M'Queen with one of his men had reconnoitred up to 
the chief gateway of the palace and reported only a few 
sepoys left. The 60th Rifles were allowed the honour 
of storming this last stronghold as they had distinguished 
themselves in the battle of Hindun, four months before. 
Roberts attached himself to the 60th on this occasion. 

Home, of the Engineers, who blew up the Kashmir 

171 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

gate, now advanced with some sappers and blew in the 
outer gate. 

They waited for the smoke of the explosion to clear 
away and then rushed in, supported by the 4th Punjab 
Infantry : but a second door barred the way, which took 
some time to force open. 

Then they saw crowds of wounded men in the recesses 
of the long passage leading to the inner rooms of the 
palace : a few fanatics only resisted. One of these, a 
Mahommedan sepoy, took aim and shot through M'Queen's 
helmet : he then charged madly along the passage, and was 
shot down. 

" So ended the 20th September — a day I am never likely 
to forget." 

We must add that Brigadier William Jones with 500 
Sikhs helped Taylor to take the Lahore gate and the great 
mosque. Brind it was who asked permission to storm the 
palace : and a young lieutenant, named Aikman, had 
previously secured the Salimgarh. 

That afternoon Wilson took up his quarters in the 
palace. 

The poor old king had been advised by his commander- 
in-chief, Bakht Khan, to accompany the sepoys in flight 
and live to fight in the open. But the aged monarch had 
wives and sons to think of, so he sadly took refuge at the 
great tomb of Humayun, four or five miles away. 

So ended the siege of Delhi : and a royal salute at 
sunrise on the 21st proclaimed that we were again the 
Masters of the Imperial City. But our triumph was 
honourably shared by the Gurkhas of the Himalayas, the 
frontier men of the Guides, the proud Sikhs, the daring 
Pathans. Heroes all — they had shown equally with the 
British soldier endurance of hardships, faith in their officers, 
and contempt of death. Lord Canning wrote in his dis- 
patches home these words : — 

" In the name of outraged humanity, in memory of 
innocent blood ruthlessly shed, in acknowledgment of the 

172 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

first signal vengeance inflicted on the foulest treason, the 
Governor-General in Council records his gratitude to Major- 
General Wilson and the brave army of Delhi. He does 
so in the sure conviction that a like tribute awaits them 
wherever the news of their well-earned triumph shall reach." 

Nicholson just lived to know that his labours had not 
been in vain : his funeral took place on the 24th, and 
Roberts was marching out that morning with a mixed 
column to Cawnpur. 

The victorious soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Great- 
hed set out in the early morning light along Silver Street, 
now desolate and deserted : the gay bazaars all idle and 
forlorn and empty : not a sound was to be heard but the 
fall of their own footsteps. Dead bodies still polluted the 
air and stricken faces grinned a ghastly farewell : dogs and 
vultures were eating their loathsome breakfast : some dead 
sepoys lay with arm uplifted as if beckoning the column to 
come and see what war was like at closer quarters. The 
very horses felt the horror of the scene, for they trembled and 
snorted in disgust and fear, misliking the scent of blood. 

It was a pure delight to gain the fresh air of the open 
country : but the taint of cholera had followed them ; 
Captain Wilde of the 4th Punjab Infantry having to be 
sent back to Delhi apparently dying ; but he made a good 
recovery and lived to fight again very strenuously. 

It was not long before they came upon rebels strongly 
posted and had to storm a walled town ; here Anson got 
surrounded by mutineers, performed heroic deeds of valour 
and won the Victoria Cross. 

Here, too, Roberts' life was saved by his horse rearing 
and receiving in his head the bullet aimed at his rider : the 
horse survived and did good service. It had been John 
Nicholson's Wasiri stallion, a great favourite of his. 

On the 1st of October another hero of the Mutiny lost 
his life : for it had been decided that Malagarh fort should 
be blown up. Lieutenant Home, who had been one of the 
Engineer officers to blow in the Kashmir gate, was engaged 

173 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

in laying the mine ; the slow-match was lighted, but as no 
explosion followed, Home thought the match had gone out 
and ran forward to relight it. Just as he reached it the 
mine blew up and Home was no more. 

When the column reached Khurja, a large Mahommedan 
town, the first thing that met the eyes of the soldiers was 
the skeleton of a white woman : it was placed against the 
side of the bridge, headless, the bones hacked and broken. 
The soldiers cried for vengeance and wished to burn the 
town ; but as the townsfolk pleaded innocence, the houses 
were spared. 

At the camping ground they saw a fakir sitting under 
a tree, vowed to silence, as a penance for sin ; but when 
some officers drew near, he pointed to a wooden platter 
significantly — an ordinary plate, in which food had recently 
been mixed : still the fakir pointed : on closer inspection it 
was seen that a small piece of wood in the centre was loose ; 
this on being lifted up revealed a tiny folded paper ! 

This was none other than a secret note from General 
Havelock, written in Greek letters, saying that he was on 
his way to Lucknow, and begging any commander into 
whose hands it should fall to hasten to his assistance. 

Greathed, on reading this, decided to proceed at once to 
Cawnpur. 

On reaching Aligarh they found a great crowd drawn 
up before the walls, blowing horns and cursing the foreigner : 
but these gentlemen catching a glimpse of the Horse 
Artillery, bolted within and closed the gates, leaving two 
guns in our possession. Thinking the city would be stormed 
and taken, they bolted out on the other side into the open 
country ; but the cavalry had ridden round and were ready for 
them as they scuttled into the high crops and tried to hide. 

The civil authorities of Aligarh welcomed the British 
rule again with alacrity and joy : for their taste of sepoy 
rule had not been sweet. 

On the road to Cawnpur lived twin brothers, Raj- 
puts, who had taken a prominent part in the rebellion : 

174 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

the cavalry surrounded their village, and both brothers were 
killed in attempting to escape. In their house were found 
many articles which must have belonged to English ladies. 

Pressing calls from Agra for help induced Greathed to 
turn from Cawnpur to Agra. What happened there can 
be given in detail in a later chapter. 

The Agra authorities had assured Greathed on his 
arrival that the rebels were ten miles away : Roberts had 
got leave with Norman, Watson, and a few other officers 
to breakfast in the fort. They had scarcely sat down, full 
of delight at once more enjoying a charming meal in ladies' 
society, when the report of a gun startled them, then 
boomed out a second and a third ! 

The officers sprang to their feet : " What can it mean ? — 
the enemy ? " 

The host ran to an angle in the terrace to see, and 
returned in hot haste, saying, " My God ! an action is taking 
place, gentlemen ! " 

In a moment Roberts and his friends were down the 
stairs and on their horses galloping towards their camp : 
but their progress was stopped by an immense crowd of 
men, children, and animals, all rushing back to the fort with 
yells and screams of fear. They had flocked out to see the 
famous Delhi soldiers ; and the surprise attack made by the 
rebels had sent them pell-mell back to the city. With 
difficulty the officers forced their way through the throng, 
and found their own men fighting in their shirt-sleeves, 
having been startled from their sleep by the round-shot, 
and not having had time to put on their accoutrements. 

Roberts at this juncture was nearly killed by a dis- 
mounted sowar, who danced about in front of his horse, 
waving his turban in front of its eyes, so that Roberts could 
not get his charger to face the man : who held in his other 
hand a sharp sword that looked very business-like. How- 
ever, a man of the 9th Lancers ran the rebel through and 
rescued his officer. 

Though Greathed had been surprised, the rebels were 

175 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

on their part more surprised : for they had supposed that 
the tents were those of the garrison whom they despised : a 
rumour had been spread abroad that the Delhi column was 
coming, but they had not believed it. 

So when they charged into the camp on the parade-ground 
and were repulsed by the 75th Foot, they were heard to say 
to one another, " Arrah bhai ! ze Delhiwale hain ! " (I say, 
brothers, these are the Delhi fellows). 

Hope Grant was put in command of the column in place 
of Greathed, and joined them in October soon after they 
left Agra. Grant was senior to Greathed, and knew much 
more of India and its customs ; he was very popular with 
the troops. 

They had some more fighting before they reached 
Cawnpur on the 26th October. Lord Roberts says : " Our 
visit to this scene of suffering and disaster was more 
harrowing than it is in the power of words to express ; the 
sights which met our eyes, and the reflections they gave rise 
to, were quite maddening . . . tresses of hair, pieces of 
ladies' dresses, books crumpled and torn, bits of work and 
scraps of music, just as they had been left by the wretched 
owners on the fatal morning of the S7th June, when they 
started for that terrible walk to the boats provided by the 
Nana. . . . When one looked on the ruined, roofless barracks, 
with their hastily constructed parapet and ditch, one mar- 
velled how 465 men, not more than half of them soldiers 
by profession, could have held out for three long weeks 
against the thousands of disciplined troops whom the Nana 
was able to bring to the attack." 

The stay at Cawnpur was longer than had been ex- 
pected, as they had to wait for the carts which had taken 
the women and children to Allahabad. 

In a battle fought on the banks of the Kali Nadi, 
Roberts won his V.C. On the same day he did two daring 
deeds as they were chasing the flying foe : a batch of muti- 
neers had faced about and fired into the squadron at close 
quarters. Younghusband fell, and Roberts waited to rescue a 

176 



IN THE GREAT SIEGE 

wounded sowar who was being attacked by a sepoy with fixed 
bayonet : one slash of the sword was sufficient : then Roberts 
rode on and saw two sepoys making off with a standard. 

" This must be captured ! " said Roberts to himself, and 
setting spurs to his horse soon overtook the rebels. One he 
cut down at once, and while he was wrenching the staff out 
of his hands, the other sepoy put his musket close to 
Roberts' body and fired. 

Fortunately the musket missed fire and Roberts re- 
covered the standard. As is the manner of English heroes, 
Lord Roberts only alludes to these actions in a summary 
way in his interesting Forty-one Years in India. 

Roberts after this went on to Lucknow, meeting his old 
friend Sir Colin Campbell and General Outram at the Relief 
of Lucknow. We cannot now enter into details of that 
struggle, but Forbes-Mitchell gives us two sketches of what 
he witnessed concerning Lieutenant Roberts. 

He tells us that the young lieutenant had been associ- 
ated with the 93rd Highlanders in several skirmishes, so 
that the men had recognised his worth and familiarly spoke 
of him as " Plucky wee Bobs." 

On the 14th November, as the 93rd were passing through 
the breach in the wall of the Dilkoosha Park, Roberts rode 
through, followed by a trooper, when suddenly a battery 
unmasked and opened fire : the second shot struck the 
trooper's horse, and horse and rider fell together in the 
dust. Someone cried, " Puir lad ! plucky wee Bobs is 
done for ! " 

But as the dust cleared away, Roberts was seen to have 
dismounted and to be assisting the trooper to rise from 
under the dead horse. 

As he remounted, the Highlanders gave him a rousing 
cheer, and he rode with the guns to the front, pointing the 
direction they should take. 

" The young lieutenant who could thus coolly dismount 
and extricate a trooper from under a dead horse within 
point-blank range of a well-served battery of 9- pounder 
M 177 



LORD ROBERTS AND DELHI 

guns, was early qualifying for the distinguished position 
which he has since reached." ^ 

After Lucknow, Roberts handed his office of D. A.Q.M.G. 
to Wolseley and returned to England. How our hero served 
his country in Afghanistan, Abyssinia, Burma, and South 
Africa must be learned elsewhere. 

If Englishmen should ever awake to the duty of making 
themselves fit to defend their country, it will be mainly due 
to the unflagging exertions of our great field-marshal. He 
has never spared himself to defend us : but we are apt to be 
forgetful and ungrateful, until the approach of danger rouses 
us from a foolish lethargy. 

^ Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny^ Macmillan. 

In part from Forty-one Years in India, by kind permission of F.-M. 
Earl Roberts ; and from Malleson's Indian Mutiny, by kind 
permission of Messrs. Seely, Service & Co. 



178 



I 



CHAPTER VIII 

JOHN NICHOLSON: THE HERO OF 
THE PUNJAB 

ADY EDWARDES, Kaye, Trotter, Bosworth Smith, 

J Lord Roberts, and others give many details of the 
life of John Nicholson. His earliest ancestors seem 
to have been of Cumberland descent ; they went across to 
Ireland and settled in Derry and County Down. 

John's father, Dr. Alexander Nicholson, was one of 
sixteen children. He married, in 1820, Clara Hogg, a sister 
of Sir James Weir Hogg, Bart., a very clever lawyer who 
went to Calcutta and made a fortune at the Bar. In time 
J. W. Hogg became chairman of the Court of Directors of 
the East India Company and was rewarded for his services 
by a baronetcy. 

Dr. Alexander Nicholson worked his way up in his 
profession and won no small repute for his skill : his eldest 
son, John, was born at Lisburn in 1822. Sir John Kaye 
says of him : " He was a precocious boy, almost from his 
cradle ; thoughtful, studious, of an inquiring nature ; and 
he had the ineffable benefit of good parental teaching of 
the best kind. In his young mind the seeds of Christian 
piety were early sown and took deep root." John was 
only nine when his father died. It is said that his 
imagination was first fired by the war stories told him 
by an old drill sergeant. His mother moved him to the 
Royal School at Dungannon in County Tyrone : here he 
waxed strong and valiant in fight ; though his father had 
been of Quaker descent ! 

For John had a fiery, imperious temper, and his 

179 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

indignation was soon roused by any act of injustice : but 
as a rule he was modest and retiring, brave and generous, 
always ready to take the side of the weaker. In 1838 
James W. Hogg obtained for him a cadetship in the 
Bengal Infantry : so at the age of sixteen he was whirled 
away from mother, friends, and home to London, took the 
oath of allegiance and set sail for the Cape and Calcutta. 

His mother was poor, and John tried to economise : 
probably he drank no wine, and stinted himself of social 
amusements ; for he thought much of the home folk. 

His regiment, the 27th Native Infantry, was stationed 
at Ferozepur on the Sutlej ; as he travelled by way of 
Meerut and Kurnal he was twice robbed in the night : forks 
and spoons, pistols, money, etc. — all were taken by skilful 
thieves. 

At Ferozepur officers had to build their own bungalows, 
and his cost him two months' pay, entailing more sacrifice 
of pleasures. The station was a wilderness outside the 
town ; neither tree nor grass grew in the place. Tigers were 
constantly on view in the neighbouring jungle, and in the 
cool season Nicholson tried to shoot them ; but at first he 
found the great heat enervating to both mind and body. 

He was now six feet high, but he added four inches more 
in the following years. Nicholson's regiment was ordered 
down to Peshawur to assist a convoy under Captain 
Broadfoot : the Sikh troops threatened to attack them, but 
Broadfoot's cool courage sent the Sikhs across the Indus 
and the convoy with many ladies arrived safely at Kabul. 

They then went to Ghuzni to relieve the 16th Native 
Infantry ; here Nicholson made a friend of Neville 
Chamberlain, his senior by two years, who thus describes 
the young Irishman : — 

" He was then a tall, slender youth with regular features 
and a quiet, reserved manner : we became friends at first 
sight, as is common with youth, and we were constantly 
together during the short time that intervened between his 
regiment taking the fort and mine leaving for Kandahar," 

180 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

For a few months Nicholson was able to study Oriental 
languages in order to qualify himself for a post in the 
Shah's service at Kabul or in the Company's. But his 
leisure was interrupted by the Afghan rising in 1841, when 
swarms of wild mountaineers, armed with long jezails, or 
matchlocks, surrounded Ghuzni in the winter : at last the 
water in the citadel failed, and Colonel Palmer had to make 
terms and surrender the citadel. Of course the Afghans 
broke their pledges to escort the garrison to Peshawur, and 
attacked the troops in their town quarters in March 1842. 
Lieutenant Crawford Burnett of the 54th and Nicholson 
saw from their roof next door the slaughter and havoc made 
among their sepoys by the Afghan fanatics ; their house was 
set on fire, and they were driven from room to room, hungry 
and alternately frozen or baked by wind and raging fire. 

On the second night they dug a hole through the back 
wall with their bayonets and escaped to the houses held by 
Palmer and his officers, and by many women and children. 
Poor, frost-bitten mortals ! life was a misery to them. 

On the night of 20th March, Palmer gave up all arms 
and surrendered. The young giant Nicholson, with tears of 
indignant fury in his eyes, thrice drove back the Afghan 
guard before he would give up his sword. 

Nicholson gave his gaolers a second taste of his temper 
when they tried to rob him of the locket with his mother's 
hair : instead of giving it up he threw it passionately at the 
Sirdar's head. 

" However," wrote Nicholson to his mother, " he seemed 
to like my act, for he gave strict orders that the locket was 
not to be taken from me.'"" 

The officers, kept in a small dungeon, in cold and filth 
and nakedness, suffered for some weeks : then, in April 1842, 
the news came that Pollock had forced the Khyber Pass, 
and their confinement became less severe. In August 1842 
they were hurried on camels to Kabul, where Akbar Khan, 
the brave son of Dost, treated them very kindly and invited 
them to a public dinner : here they met Troup and 

181 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

Pottinger and many polite Afghans. Next morning 
Akbar escorted them to the fort outside the city where 
Lady Sale, George Lawrence, and other prisoners were 
confined in good quarters. But their good fortune was 
not to last many days : when news came of the approach 
of Pollock and Nott, the prisoners were removed for 
security beyond the Hindu Kush. However, George 
Lawrence bribed the Afghan officer to accept a pension 
for life and let the prisoners go free. 

So Lady Sale once more met her husband, whose 
regiment, the 13th Light Infantry, cheered the ladies as 
they returned to camp. 

Nicholson and his fellow-captives were dressed as 
Afghans just now ; and as Neville Chamberlain was 
passing a tent a stone struck him : he put his hand to his 
sword and angrily confronted the Afghan, who was 
stooping to pick up another stone. 

" Good Lord ! why, I'm blessed if you aren''t John 
Nicholson ! " 

The two officers burst out laughing and shook hands 
heartily. 

A second surprise meeting befell Nicholson on 1st 
November 1842 at the Afghan mouth of the Khyber 
Pass, as the army was returning to India. A young 
officer lately posted to one of Pollock's regiments 
began to talk to him : they seemed to be drawn together 
by some strange affinity : it was explained when they knew 
they were both Nicholsons — and brothers ! 

The third surprise meeting was mere tragedy : for three 
da3^s later, as John was riding on rear-guard down the Pass 
with Ensign Dennys, they spied a naked body gleaming to 
the right : cantering to the spot, they found the mutilated 
body of a white man, with just a fragment of a shirt flutter- 
ing from the shoulder. 

" That shirt seems too fine for a private soldier, doesn't 
it ? " said Dennys. 

There was no reply. Dennys looked up and saw his 

182 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

friend's shoulders moving in suppressed grief : he had recog- 
nised his young brother ! Poor Alexander ! only just 
arrived from home and mother and kindred ! but they had 
enjoyed one happy meeting before he was taken away. 

The boy's remains were carried in a dhoolie to the next 
camping-ground : after solemn burial, a bonfire was lighted 
over the grave to save it from Afghan marauders. 

John Nicholson felt this loss deeply, and the tears fell 
down his cheeks. His captivity in Afghanistan had won for 
John two good friends in George and Henry Lawrence : 
hence in 1847 he was appointed assistant to the Resident at 
Lahore, the Sikh capital. 

His friend Denny s says of Nicholson : "In general he 
was reserved almost to moroseness in those davs, and I was 
one of the very few who were in any way intimate with him. 
. . . Fear of any kind seemed unknown to him, and one 
could see there was a great depth behind his reserved and 
almost boorish manner." Indeed, Nicholson had tasted of 
sorrow very early. 

It was on 20th April, when on his way to Multan, that 
John Nicholson met his young brother, Charles, whom he 
had last seen at the age of ten. Of course neither of them 
recognised the other : " I actually talked to him half an hour 
before I could persuade myself of his identity. He is as tall, 
if not taller than I am. . . . Our joy at meeting you will under- 
stand, mother, without my attempting to describe it to you." 

There seems to have been a tragic fatality about the 
meetings of poor Mrs. Nicholson's sons — the lady who gave 
four sons to die for her country, John, Charles, William, 
and Alexander — for when Charles and John met at Delhi, 
they were both wounded, both lay side by side in the 
hospital tent, and exchanged the last words. 

In the summer of 1848, Nicholson lay sick of fever ; but 
when the news came that a very powerful Sikh chief had 
revolted, and George Lawrence, sitting on his bed, said, 
"John, if you had been fit for the work, I should have 
wished to send you ; but that is out of the question." 

183 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

" Never mind the fever," cried Nicholson, " I will start 
to-night." And he rose from his bed, made his preparations 
and started that evening with 60 Pathan Horse and 150 
Mahommedans. 

''Never shall I forget him," says a brother- officer, "as 
he prepared for his start, full of that noble reliance on the 
presence and protection of God which, added to an unusual 
share of physical courage, rendered him almost invincible." 

He rode at a gallop and covered the fifty miles from 
Peshawur to Attock ; but only thirty of his escort kept up 
with him as he crossed the Indus and dashed through the 
Sikhs at the gate of Attock. 

Once inside the walls he cowed the sullen natives by his 
bold words and prompt action : for he arrested the leaders of 
sedition and stalked amongst the Sikhs like an angry god. 

After securing Attock, Nicholson rode farther and 
checked the rising in other forts. We cannot follow him 
in his long rides and many fights. He was aide to Lord 
Gough in the battle of Chilian wala, that battlefield in 
which the Sikh gunners and camp-followers after the battle 
came down in the darkness of night, carried off twenty- eight 
guns, and stabbed every wounded man they found alive. 

After the victories of Lord Gough, Nicholson was riding 
about every day, exploring for supplies, trying to protect 
the poor villagers from the cruel bands of plunderers : 
amongst these he caught some of Gough's soldiers, and had 
them soundly flogged. He asked for the powers of a 
provost-marshal, and wrote to Sir Henry Lawrence : " If 
I get them, rely on my bringing the army to its senses 
within two days." 

Perhaps Sir Henry thought his subordinate a little too 
stern and severe, for he wrote about this time : " Let me 
advise you as a friend to curb your temper, and bear and 
forbear with natives and Europeans. ... I admire your 
sincerity as much as any man can do, but say this much as 
a general warning . . . yet from what I saw in camp, I 
think you have done much towards conquering yourself." 

184 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

At this time Nicholson lost another brother, William, 
who had come out recently as a cadet in the Bombay army. 
He was found in bed one morning in June 1849 with two 
ribs broken and many bruises : it was put down to sleep- 
walking, but the natives long after called his house " Mur- 
der House." He was only twenty. 

At this time John Nicholson applied for leave of absence 
and went home with his friend, Herbert Edwardes, and John 
Lawrence's two little girls. He visited Russia, Prussia, and 
Paris, and studied foreign military systems ; brought a new 
needle-gun to London ; but the authorities saw little in it 
as an invention until later occurrences in war opened their 
eyes. 

Nicholson's mother was now staying with Sir James 
Hogg, his uncle, and the boy Quintin, the future founder 
of the Polytechnic, listened open-mouthed to his tall cousin's 
wonderful tales of war and peace. 

After a visit to Ireland, Nicholson returned in March 
1851 to India. His friend. Sir Henry Lawrence, was still 
in power at Lahore ; and as Reynell Taylor was leaving 
Bunnu for his furlough, he appointed Nicholson deputy- 
commissioner in his place. 

Bunnu — the wildest corner of the north-west Punjab, 
and close to Afghanistan — was to be placed under the 
imperious, but sympathetic leadership of an Irish Hercules. 

Taylor 'and Nicholson met and exchanged views in 
Bunnu. With Taylor was Richard Pollock (K.C.B.), who 
regarded Reynell Taylor as a saint upon earth, acting solely 
from duty and religion ; while he was as yet somewhat 
prejudiced against the high-handed dealer of stern justice 
who was to succeed him. This prejudice was not lessened 
when he heard the loud, confident tone of Nicholson, and 
his expressed determination to do in so many months what 
the gentle, slow-working Taylor had only done in years. 

The new warden of the marches, however, was a man of 
action : he was soon scouring the country at the head of 
1500 mounted police, and he penetrated the homes of the 

185 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

Wazirs, formerly believed to be inaccessible, and dealt stern 
punishment to thieves and marauders. 

Night thefts in the cantonment were not rare. Men, 
well-armed, came across the border, sneaked up the dry beds 
of irrigation channels and killed any who resisted their 
robberies. 

Their leader was the headman of a village just inside 
the Gumatti Pass. In the daytime was none so mealy- 
mouthed and respectable ; by night he sent out his men to 
steal from friend and foe. 

Nicholson had the canals patrolled by police, who lay 
down and waited for their man : the Waziri Malik came 
one night and got killed. 

The next morning was market-day, and the natives 
gasped as they looked upon the dead body of the robber- 
chief exposed in the market-place, like a stoat nailed up on 
a barn-door. 

Sir Herbert Edwardes knew what Bunnu was like, and 
what Nicholson had done. He wrote : " John Nicholson 
belongs to the school of Henry Lawrence. I only knocked 
down the walls of the Bunnu forts : John Nicholson has 
since reduced the people (the most ignorant, depraved, and 
bloodthirsty in the Punjab) to such a state of good order 
and respect for the laws, that in the last year of his charge 
not only was there no murder, burglary, or highway robbery, 
but not an attempt at any of these crimes. ... A brother- 
hood of fakirs has commenced the worship of 'Nikkul 
Seyn,' which they still continue. Repeatedly they have met 
Nicholson since, and fallen at his feet as their guru, or 
religious teacher : he has flogged them soundly on every 
occasion and sometimes imprisoned them ; but the sect of 
the Nikkul Seynes remains as devoted as ever." This was 
no other than the worship of Power : for these rude men 
thought that a man who could make all their world obey 
him must be divine. We may remember, too, that when 
the news of Nicholson's death at Delhi became known to 
his native worshippers in Hazara, they came together to 

186 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

lament, and one of them cut his throat on the spot : for he 
said there was no profit in life when Nickilsyn had left it. 

But another, more wise than he, averred that this was 
not the right way to serve their great guru, or teacher : 
but that if they wished to see him again in the great 
beyond, they must learn to love his God. Nicholson 
deeply regretted the removal of Henry Lawrence from 
Lahore, and for some time obstinately, with an ill grace, 
received the friendly overtures of Sir John Lawrence, his 
brother's successor. 

But John Lawrence soon found out the worth of 
Nicholson, and heartily did he praise him in letters to Lord 
Dalhousie : " his presence among the wild men of Bunnu is 
well worth the wing of a regiment." 

"He is the best district officer on the frontier. He 
possesses great courage, much force of character, and is at 
the same time shrewd and intelligent." ^ 

The Governor- General was rather shocked at some of 
Nicholson's high-handed proceedings, and asked Sir John 
for reports of all incursions. "Don't send up any more 
men to be hanged direct," writes Sir John in 1858, " unless 
the case is very urgent." 

But Nicholson was not to be bound by red tape: a 
friend once saw him sitting in his office with a bundle of 
papers on the floor. 

" Government regulations — eh, Nicholson ? " 
"Yes— and this is the way I treat all these things," 
Nicholson replied with a sarcastic laugh, as he kicked them 
across the room. 

In January 1854 the news came that Honoria, wife of 
Sir Henry Lawrence, had died after a hngering illness. 
This lady had exercised a softening and religious influence 
on Nicholson at Peshawur. 

She had sent him a message through her husband in 
September 1853: "Tell him I love him dearly, as if he 
were my son. I know that he is noble and pure to his 
1 Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence. 

187 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

fellow-men, that he thinks not of himself ; but tell him that 
he is a sinner, that one day he will be as weak and as near 
death as I am now." ^ 

And yet this stern dispenser of justice loved children, he 
even sent for toys for some of the Waziri boys and girls. 

Once a little boy was brought to him for having been 
put up to poison food. 

" Did you not know it was wrong to kill ? " asked 
Nicholson. 

" Yes, sahib, I know it is wrong to kill with a knife or 
sword." 

" Why, my boy ? " asked the great man in gentle, 
sympathetic tones. 

" Because, sahib, the blood leaves marks." 

Nicholson had the child removed from his bad parents 
and adopted by a kind native. " I have seldom seen," 
writes Nicholson to his friend Edwardes, "anything more 
touching than their mutual adoption of each other as father 
and son ; the child clasping the man''s beard, the man 
placing his hands on the child's head." 

One day a Mahommedan was brought to him for having 
murdered his own brother — it was a very hot evening, and 
the criminal looked dreadfully parched and exhausted after a 
forced march of many miles. " Why ! " said Nicholson, " is it 
possible you can have walked in, fasting, on a day like this ? " 

" Thank God ! " said the murderer, " I am a regular 
faster." 

" But why have you killed your brother ? " 

" I saw a fowl killed last night ; the sight of the blood put 
the devil into me." 

The man had chopped up his brother in cold blood, 
stood a long chase, and been marched into camp : but he 
was religiously keeping his fast — thank God ! 

In January 1856, Nicholson was nearly assassinated by a 
fanatic, who rushed at him with a drawn sword as he stood 
at his garden gate. 

^ Kaye, Indian Officers, 

188 



THE HERO OF THE PU:NJAB 

A native orderly with a sword ran in between them. 
The fanatic shouted, " Stand aside, Chuprassi ; I want to kill 
the sahib, not a common soldier.' ' 

" All our names are Nikkul Seyn here ! "" replied the 
Chuprassi. 

But as the fanatic pressed on, Nicholson snatched a 
musket from a passing sentry, and presenting it, said, " Put 
down your sword, or I will fire." 

" Sahib, either you or I must die," answered the madman. 

Nicholson then shot the fellow through the heart, and 
the ball passed through a religious book which was tied as 
a charm across his chest. 

No wonder that with such experiences Nicholson had 
grown grave and somewhat stern in expression, for the 
dark devilry of the Bunnuchis demanded an iron will and 
an imperious temper. 

At this time his face was partly concealed by a long, 
dark beard and moustache ; while he walked, like his 
brothers, with a firm, vigorous step, holding his head high 
and looking very masterful. But it was just this masterful 
look and relentless insistence on obedience which gained for 
him the awe and respect of the natives, though such im- 
perious ways did not always commend him to his equals. 

He said once to Sir Neville Chamberlain : " There is 
one thing in life I have failed in, which I wished to attain 
— that is to be popular with my brother-officers; I know 
I am not, and I am sorry for it." 

However, even his brother-officers found out his true 
worth before he died. But the rod of iron tempered by 
sunny humour won the savage heart, for he was always 
just; and they recognised his justice, and loved his smiles 
One day, as he was riding through a Bunnuchi village with 
his escort, he noticed a Mullah, or Mussulman priest, forbore 
to salaam as he sat in front of his mosque and scowled as 
they passed. When he reached camp, Nicholson sent two 
orderlies to fetch the Mullah, and with him the village 
barber, 

189 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

" Shave off that priest's beard, Master Barber," ordered 
Nicholson. This, the direst insult to a Mahommedan, was 
speedily carried out ; and the culprit humbly returned to 
his mosque a sadder and, let us hope, a wiser man. 

Sir Richard Pollock says of Nicholson's rule at Bunnu : 
" Edwardes found Bunnu a valley of forts and left it a 
valley of open villages. Nicholson found it a hell upon 
earth, and left it probably as wicked as ever, but curbed to 
punishment." Nothing seemed to tire Nicholson ; he could 
ride twenty miles before breakfast to investigate a crime, 
and then sit in court through the heat of a summer day 
hearing cases for judgment. A Peshawari said of him, 
" You can hear the ring of his horse's hoofs from Attock to 
the Khyber Pass." 

With all his stern severity he loved children, and they, 
looking up into his dark lustrous eyes, trusted the big sahib 
who gave them so many toys. His generosity extended to 
all ; when he found a man suffering poverty from no moral 
fault, he would hand him his bag of rupees and say, 
" Here, my friend, God knows you have done your best ; 
take a handful." 

In 1856, Nicholson was transferred to Peshawur as 
deputy -commissioner. He writes in March 1857 : " Old Coke 
tells me that the Bunnuchis, well-tamed as they have been, 
speak kindly and gratefully of me. I would rather have 
heard this than have got a present of ^1000, for there could 
be no stronger testimony of my having done my duty 
among them. ... I can't help a feeling of pride that a 
savage people, whom I was obliged to deal with so sternly, 
should appreciate and give me credit for good intentions." 

Sir Herbert Edwardes had told Lord Canning when he 
was at Calcutta : " My lord, you may rely upon this, that 
if ever there is a desperate deed to be done in India, John 
Nicholson is the man to do it." 

The time was rapidly drawing nigh when Britain in India 
would need this hero. In January 1857, Dost Mohamed, 
Ameer of Afghanistan, renewed his treaty with the British 

190 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

Government at Jamrud, and concluded with these words : 
" Happen what may, I will keep it faithfully till death."" 

But John Nicholson made an excuse for not attending 
Sir John Lawrence's durbar ; he had suffered so much at the 
hands of treacherous Afghans, he had found them so utterly 
false and faithless that his whole soul revolted against the 
idea of making them our friends and allies. 

Fortunately Herbert Edwardes was right in trusting 
them this time, for during the Mutiny they might have 
taken a great revenge, but instead of that they loyally kept 
faith and lent us trusty fighters. 

In May 1857, Nicholson was deputy- commissioner at 
Peshawur, General Sydney Cotton commanded the troops, 
and Colonel Herbert Edwardes was the commissioner in 
political charge. With these were Brigadier Neville 
Chamberlain, commander of the Punjab Irregular Force, 
and Major-Gen eral Reed, who commanded the Peshawur 
division of the army. 

As we have seen in a former chapter, the officers were 
sitting at mess on the evening of 11th May, when the fatal 
telegram came which told how the mutineers from Meerut 
had entered Delhi and killed many Europeans. Next 
morning came the telegram sent from Meerut at midnight 
on the 10th : " Native troops in open mutiny : cantonments 
burnt : several officers killed : European troops under arms 
defending barracks." 

At Peshawur they could at first hardly believe that the 
mutineers could get safely away from a camp guarded by 
two strong white regiments and several batteries of artillery ! 
It was a thing to gasp at ! 

We have already described how Chamberlain was chosen 
to lead the movable column, and how Nicholson rode down 
the disaffected and helped to disarm the native regiments. 

In June the death of Colonel Chester at Delhi called 
Chamberlain to fill his place, and Nicholson was chosen to 
command the Irregular Horse with the rank of brigadier- 
general, 

191 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

Soon after Nicholson took up his command he moved to 
Jullundur, in which city the sepoys had been allowed to go 
off' with their muskets and much treasure. The Rajah of 
Kapurthala offered to garrison Jullundur for us with his 
own troops : though the Rajah himself was loyal, his 
officers and men swaggered about rather offensively. When 
Nicholson came with his column en route for Delhi, the 
commissioner. Major Edward Lake, invited the officers of 
the Kapurthala troops to a durbar with Nicholson at his 
house. 

All went well until the end, when General Mehtab Sing, 
a relation of the Rajah's, took his leave, and as the senior in 
rank was walking out of the room first, but Nicholson stalked 
with long strides to the door, waved Mehtab Sing back with 
an imperious air, while he let the rest of the company pass 
out. When they had all gone, Nicholson said to Lake : "Do 
you see that General Mehtab Sing has his shoes on ? " 

Now a native in native dress politely removes his shoes 
as we take off a hat. Then, speaking in Hindustani, 
Nicholson went on : — 

" There is no possible excuse for such an act of gross 
impertinence. Mehtab Sing knows perfectly well that he 
would not venture to step on his own father's carpet save 
barefooted, and he only commits this breach of etiquette 
to-day because he thinks we are not in a position to resent the 
insult." Mehtab Sing stammered out some kind of apology ; 
but Nicholson, still unappeased, politely turned to Lake and 
said : " I hope the commissioner will now allow me to order 
you to take your shoes off* and carry them out in your own 
hands so that your followers may witness your discomfiture." 

The native general, completely cowed, meekly did as 
he was ordered. We have this story on the authority of 
Lord Roberts, who was present on the occasion, and five 
years after had a good laugh with the Rajah about it. 
" We often chaff our general about that little affair,"" said 
the Rajah, and tell him he richly deserved the treatment he 
received from the great Nicholson Sahib. 

19^ 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

Major Lake soon admitted the wisdom of Nicholson's 
action ; for the manner of the Kapurthala people changed 
at once, disrespect vanished, and they ceased to swagger 
about as masters of the world. We cannot give details 
of the masterly way in which Nicholson proceeded to 
disarm native regiments, and how he punished the Sealkote 
mutineers for killing their brigadier and many women and 
children. In all these movements he showed the skill of 
a consummate general. But for his strategy the Delhi 
garrison would have been strengthened by four thousand 
good native soldiers. Sir John Lawrence, knowing the 
importance of taking Delhi, consented to Nicholson leading 
his column down to help the men on the Ridge. 

The author of The Siege of Delhi, an otHcer who served 
there, writes : " A stranger of very striking appearance was 
remarked visiting all our pickets, examining everything and 
making most searching inquiries. Llis attire gave no clue 
to his rank ; it evidently never cost the owner a thought. 
It was soon made out that this was General Nicholson, 
whose person was not yet known to camp ; it was whispered 
at the same time that he was possessed of the most brilliant 
military genius. He was a man cast in a giant mould, with 
massive chest and powerful limbs, and an expression ardent 
and commanding — features of stern beauty, a long black 
beard, and sonorous voice." 

On the 7th of August this stranger dined at the head- 
quarters mess ; he sat silent and grave, and evidently damped 
down the gaiety of the younger officers. Sir Harvey Greathed 
says : " If we had all been as solemn and as taciturn during 
the last two months, I do not think we should have survived : 
our genial, jolly mess-dinners have kept up our spirits." 

We must remember that Nicholson had only recently 
heard of the death of his great friend Sir Henry Lawrence ; 
then the news from Cawnpur and Lucknow must have 
shocked him : he knew that Sir John Lawrence was sendinsr 
down from the Punjab his last man and his last gun : no 
wonder he looked grave and stern. 
N 193 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

Next day, when he visited Major Reid at Hindu Rao's 
house, the post which he and his sturdy Gurkhas had 
defended so gallantly for two months, Nicholson gave un- 
consciously some offence by his close questioning. 

" I don't like his lofty manner and overbearing style of 
address," said the major to Baird-Smith, the chief Engineer. 

" That wears off," was the reply ; " you'll like him better 
when you have seen more of him." Kaye tells us that 
Reid's dislike soon turned to admiration, and the two men 
became excellent friends. 

On the morning of the 12th, Nicholson rode away from 
Delhi to join his movable column : they had expected to be 
attacked by a sortie from Delhi, but there was a swamp on 
either side of the road, and they met no resistance. But 
they heard the roar of cannon, and at night the flash of 
guns told them how constant was the struggle. 

On the morning of the 14th August they marched on 
to the Ridge with bands playing and colours flying, 3000 
strong, while cheers welcomed their arrival. 

We have already given some description of Nicholson's 
doings before Delhi : his routing of the enemy who had 
gone out to cut off the siege train, when at one time in 
fording a canal the water was over the horses' backs ; his 
daily rounds with Taylor of the Engineers in search of a 
site for the new batteries ; his impatient appeals to General 
Wilson to fix a day for the grand assault ; his riding round 
at night to see that the sentries were on the alert ; his last 
advice when the officers were consulting how they should 
proceed after they had carried the breaches in the wall : — 

" Don't press the enemy too hard : let them have a 
golden bridge to retire by." For he knew there were many 
Sikhs in Delhi who had been unwillingly fighting the 
British : many sepoys who were there by compulsion. And 
he thought it unwise to render the enemy desperate by 
giving no hope of mercy. 

On 1st September, Nicholson had written to Herbert 
Edwardes : " If it please Providence that I live through this 

194 



THE HERO OF THE PUNJAB 

business, you must get me alongside of you again, and be 
my guide and help in endeavouring to follow Sir Henry's 
example ; for I am so weak and unstable that I shall never 
do any good of myself. "''* So, then, this strong hero of war 
knew his own moral weakness and was not ashamed to 
confess it to a real friend. 

He thought of the welfare of his soldiers in all the stress 
of battle. Thus he writes to Edwardes : " A poor orderly of 
mine, named Sadat Khan, died here of cholera the other 
day. He has a mother and a brother, and I think a wife in 
the Usafzai country. Should I not be left to do it, will 
you kindly provide for the brother, and give the women a 
couple of hundred rupees out of my estate ?"^ 

The storming of Delhi on the 14th September we need not 
dwell on now : the fighting in narrow streets, the fatal shot 
that laid Nicholson low in the act of calling on his men to try 
once more, the removal of the wounded general by Colonel 
Graydon and a sergeant, and later by his aide-de-camp, 
Captain Trench, who went for further assistance : all this has 
been already described. But one thing more we must add. 

As he lay in a recess in the street. Captain Hay of the 
60th Native Infantry, with whom Nicholson was not on 
very friendly terms, happened to bend over him. " I will 
make up my difference with you. Hay," gasped Nicholson, 
" I will let you take me back " : so, with Captain Hay by 
his side, he was borne slowly back to the Kashmir gate ; 
but when the captain left him with instruction to the 
bearers to go to the field hospital, these worthies put down 
the dhoolie and bolted, and then it was that Lieutenant 
Roberts found him as already described. 

It was late in the afternoon when John Nicholson was 
carried into the field hospital. As he lay awaiting his turn, 
fate decreed that his brother Charles should be brought in 
wounded and set down by his side. Charles had just had 
his shattered arm amputated, and he, like his brother John, 
lay cold and white : they might have been two statues 

^ Kaye. 

195 



JOHN NICHOLSON 

carved in marble. Sadly they recognised each other and 
murmured a last good-bye. 

In the evening Neville Chamberlain came over from 
Hindu Rao's house to see him : the wounded man, shot 
through the lungs, would talk about the day's doings ; this 
increased the danger to the wounded lung. But the strong 
man lingered on in great pain for nine days : in this time 
he sent loving messages to old friends and to his mother. 
Edwardes wired to Chamberlain : " Give John Nicholson 
our love in time and eternity. God ever bless him ! I do 
not cease to hope and pray for him as a dear brother." At 
half-past nine on the morning of 23rd September the hero 
passed away. 

It is a relief to know that Charles Nicholson lived some 
five years longer : he was removed to Umballa, whence he 
wrote with his left hand a long letter to Sir James Hogg, 
his uncle ; he it was who gave John and Charles Nicholson 
the great opportunities they had seized so well. Early in 
1858 Charles left India on sick leave for Ireland, and visited 
his mother at Lisburn. In October he went to the United 
States, married his cousin, Miss Gillilan, and brought her 
back to Ireland. 

In 1862, Sir Hugh Rose offered him the command of a 
Gurkha regiment in North India; but on his way up 
country he broke a blood-vessel and died at the age of 
thirty-three. 

John Nicholson's mother died at the age of eighty-eight, 
havins: outlived six of her seven children. Before she died, 
Mrs. Nicholson at her own cost placed a monument to 
John's memory in the Parish Church at Lisburn ; this was 
designed and executed by J. H. Foley, R. A. The upper part 
of the tablet is a scene representing the storming of the 
Kashmir bastion carved in clear relief on white marble. 
Sir Herbert Edwardes wrote the inscription, in which were 
these words : " In all he thought and did, unselfish, earnest, 
plain and true . . . soldier and civilian, a tower of strength ; 
the type of the conquering race." 

196 



CHAPTER IX 

GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. : THE 
MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

ALEXANDER TAYLOR was a Scot by race and an 
Irishman by birth : many of his ancestors had been 
distinguished engineers, both civil and military, and 
they hailed from Aberdeen, 

Alexander's grandfather. Captain George Taylor, began 
life as a civil engineer at Aberdeen : he planned and super- 
intended the construction of the Aberdeen-Inverurie Canal, 
and the harbour of Howth (Dublin). 

In 1779 we find him fighting as a volunteer in the 
British Army under Sir Henry Clinton, and distinguishing 
himself at the Siege of Charlestown : he received a com- 
mission as captain in the Duke of Cumberland's regiment in 
Jamaica. On his return he married Barbara Thompson, 
bought the family place, Anfield, and became captain of the 
Aberdeen Volunteers. 

Soon after, he left Scotland for Dublin and undertook 
the management of high roads between Dublin and the 
south-west of Ireland. 

The Taylors were the great road-makers : Alexander 
inherited this faculty. William Taylor, George's youngest 
son, the father of Sir Alexander, devoted himself to the 
introduction into Ireland of the new steam-engine, and 
owing to his energy and enthusiasm the Southern and 
South- Western Railway was speedily opened. 

Alexander Taylor was this William's eldest son and 
was born in Dublin in 1826. At the early age of twelve 
the boy was sent to the famous school at Hofwyl, near 

197 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

Berne, which was managed by Pestalozzi's friend, Herr Von 
Fellenberg. 

The basis of the teaching was love to God and love to 
man : the education of the body and the character came 
first ; hands, eyes and ears were carefully trained before the 
pure intelligence was instructed. 

Alexander remained here till he was fifteen : he rapidly 
rose in the school, became a good gymnast, skater, rider 
and fencer. It was a splendid school for one who was to 
become an Engineer. 

In August, 1841, Taylor entered the military college at 
Addiscombe, where he gained the friendship of George 
Fulton, killed at Lucknow in 1857. When the young 
lieutenant arrived at Calcutta he joined the headquarters of 
the Sappers at Meerut, and was shortly after sent to 
Ferozepur. As he had done much sailing at Chatham, 
Lord Ellenborough gave him charge of a flotilla of fifty 
boats for military bridging on the Sutlej. On the 
outbreak of the first Sikh War, Taylor was ordered to sink 
these boats and fall back on Ferozepur : here he was put 
in command of the Sappers and Miners, though only a young 
subaltern. 

When the Sikhs withdrew Taylor had orders to raise 
the boats, and they afterwards formed the bridge across 
which the British Army marched to Lahore after the battle 
of Sobraon. 

When fighting began at Multan (1848) he carried 
down the heavy Engineer train required for the siege in 
these same unwieldy boats. No doubt he enjoyed it 
vastly ; for 200 miles he was fending them off" shoals, or 
guiding them through foaming rapids ; but he brought 
them safely to Multan, and won the praise and esteem 
of his only passenger — Robert Napier, his chief Engineer, 
and later known as Lord Napier of Magdala. 

Modesty, promptitude, a huge appetite for work, 
resource in the time of peril, great cheerfulness — all 
these qualities were duly marked by his chief, who after- 

198 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

wards gave him his life's work — ^the construction of the 
grand trunk road between Lahore and Peshawur. Taylor 
was in charge of the Engineers' Park in both sieges of 
Multan, and distinguished himself by preparing all kinds 
of contrivances for facilitating siege operations, as well as 
by making brilliant and hazardous reconnaissances. For, 
in exploring the ground, as afterwards at Delhi, in taking 
measurements of walls, etc., many lives were saved. 
The writer has just heard from a Mutiny veteran how 
mistakes were sometimes made when besieging cities. In 
estimating the height of walls, ladders would not reach to 
the top, or the coping had not been knocked off by the 
guns : in consequence valuable lives were lost, as the 
attacking party were shot down before they could escalade 
the ramparts. It was such defaults as these which Alex- 
ander Taylor never permitted ; he knew what to do, and 
how to do it well. 

When the breaches in the walls of Multan were com- 
pleted, Robert Napier allowed him to guide the party 
assaulting the left breach : in doing this Taylor was severely 
wounded. 

At the battle of Gujerat (February 1849), being 
orderly officer to General Sir John Cheape, Taylor had his 
horse killed under him. He was with Gilbert in the 
pursuit of the Sikhs to the mouth of the Khyber, and was 
thanked for his services in dispatches. 

In May 1849, Robert Napier entrusted Taylor with 
the construction of a new military road destined to connect 
Lahore and Peshawur — 290 miles through a wild country 
that possessed no roads and little organised labour, and of 
which there were no maps. The Lahore-Peshawur road is 
now the first military road in India, and from the trunk 
line radiate branches in every direction. 

On this work Taylor with his subordinates and road- 
makers was employed unremittingly from 1849 to 1857. 

The viaducts over the five rivers, the Sutlej, the Beas, 
the Ravi, the Chenab and the Jhelum, were to be post- 
199 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

poned ; but bridges over all lesser rivers were to be built, 
and a good and clear passage made through the rugged 
country between the Jhelum and the Indus. 

For a few miles wide on each side of these rivers of the 
Punjab (five rivers) there lies a narrow belt of fertile land, 
irrigated by overflow waters. All between the rivers, with 
this exception, is jungle of tamarisk and thorn, haunted 
by wild beasts or wilder men, assassins and cattle-lifters. 

The heat here is terrible amid these rocks and deserts 
and scanty grasses. 

The Punjab is as populous as Bengal in the rich country, 
healthy and pleasant in the hill districts ; but in the plains, 
as at Lahore and Multan, the heat is well-nigh intoler- 
able. Hence an Indian proverb arose : " When God had 
Multan ready for His purpose, why did He make Hell ? " 

Of the different peoples among whom Taylor was 
working, come first the Sikhs, tall and lithe and bearded, 
the bravest and most chivalrous race in India : they had 
fought well against us in two great wars and taken their 
beating like men, and were soon to show how their good 
faith was as strong as their valour. 

The aboriginal Goojurs and Gukkurs together with 
Rajputs made up a sixth part of the population ; the rest, 
»• in the country round Multan, Hazara and Peshawur, were 
mostly Mussulman : the farther west, the wilder the tribes 
— all ready to swoop down on the industrious nations of the 
richer valleys and slay with robbery under arms. 

Such were the men amongst whom Taylor and his 
subordinates had to work : and when they first began, 
there was not a road or a map existent. 

Taylor had to work single-handed : he had to be his 
own draughtsman, surveyor and leveller : he had to collect 
labourers from the district, not always by persuasion : he 
had to keep his own accounts and send them up punctually 
to Sir John Lawrence, who came once a year to inspect 
progress, and was more given to find fault than to praise. 

Soon rumours began to come to him of sepoys shooting 

200 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

their officers, of horsemen hurrying south towards Delhi, 
and of a great siege beginning. Still he toiled on amid the 
pickaxes and spades, wondering if his siege experiences at 
Multan might some day soon be thought useful down at 
Delhi! Then, one day, the commissioner of the district, 
Edward Thornton, came to see him, and said gaily, " Hello, 
Taylor ! you here, still making roads ! Why, you ought to 
be at Delhi, working in the trenches." 

" I would give my eyes," replied Taylor, " to be there ; 
but my work is here, and I do not think it right to 
volunteer." 

Thornton rode off, musing on the strange throwing 
away of a good engineer, when he was so much wanted 
elsewhere. 

The next time he saw John Lawrence he told him what 
he had seen, and what he had thought. And John Lawrence 
said curtly, " Send him ! " So Thornton rode out again to 
Alexander Taylor and said : 

" I have come from the chief commissioner : he says you 
are to go to Delhi." 

" Oh ! " said Taylor, " any of you fellows got a sword ? " 

In a quarter of an hour the road-maker was ready to 
start, and, joining Neville Chamberlain, he reached Delhi 
on 27th June. There Captain Taylor found Baird-Smith 
nominally chief Engineer, but his important staff duties and 
his increasing illness compelled him to delegate the actual 
duties of chief Engineer to the younger man from the 
Punjab, who had come to the camp with so brilhant a 
reputation. 

As General Sir F. R. Maunsell has ably set out in his 
pamphlet on the siege of Delhi, the British force on the 
Ridge had just enough ammunition to form practicable 
breaches, and if the city could not be taken by surprise 
when this was expended, there was no other hope of success. 
The only site suitable for such an attack was covered with 
buildings, trees, copses and ruins, and was occupied more or 
less by the enemy. 

201 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

Captain Taylor, from the first day of his arrival, began 
to examine the ground at the risk of his life and with many 
hairbreadth escapes. In these hazardous scoutings he was 
frequently accompanied by General Nicholson, who loved 
the audacity of such adventures. 

For some time no one knew what he was studying or 
planning, for Taylor was the most modest and retiring of 
men. 

Any one who might be informed that the Engineer was 
seeking a site for his batteries in the very ground occupied 
by a watchful enemy would say at once, how can he survey 
the site, take measurements and mark the position of the 
guns in the face of the enemy ? The thing is absurd. 

But Taylor was doing all this long before the siege 
guns arrived. Owing, however, to Baird-Smith being ill, 
no full report of the Engineer's part in the siege was written, 
and the earliest histories scarcely mentioned Taylor's name. 
But Sir John Kaye, after the publication of his History of 
the Mutiny, asked Sir Alexander Taylor some direct ques- 
tions, and Sir Alexander's reply will probably be printed 
in full when the Engineer's Life by Miss Taylor is published. 

General Maunsell writes : " I knew Taylor first at 
Multan and afterwards at Delhi. These defensive replies 
were forced from him by those who demanded the facts 
from him directly. Never was he one to claim more than 
his due. At Delhi he humbly let others take the credit 
and honour really due to him." 

In Sir Alexander's letter, dated 29th November 1875, he 
states that he and Baird-Smith often discussed how the 
assault was to be made ; they agreed that economy of time 
would be the chief point. It must be a surprise, and give 
no time to the enemy to prepare a counter-attack. 

An attack in full form, with trenches, etc., was out of 
the question. There must be no room for error, but all 
must be actually seen and measured. 

There was a great house called Ludlow Castle between 
our lines and the walls of the city, in which the enemy kept 

202 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

a large piquet of several hundred sepoys. As Taylor one 
day was watching Ludlow Castle with his glasses, he thought 
the old piquet had been withdrawn and the new one had 
not yet arrived. Ludlow Castle is set on the crest of a 
ridge sloping down towards the city walls. " Now's my 
chance to examine the ground," he thought : thereupon he 
threw down sword and belt, seized his pistol, ordered a 
piquet of sixteen men from the Guides to follow him, 
and passed between Ludlow Castle and the river ; he even 
went as far as Khoodsia Bagh, an old summer palace of the 
Mogul kings. 

Leaving the men in extended order outside this building, 
with strict orders on no account to fire, Taylor entered the 
walled enclosure with the havildar, or native oJfficer, and 
explored it thoroughly ; then, mounting on the wall next 
the city, he could see the sentry on the ramparts apparently 
quite close. 

The Custom House, one hundred and eighty yards in 
front of him, and lower down, was between him and the 
city wall. Taylor lay on his face on the top of the palace 
wall behind a small shrub, and carefully examined the 
Custom House for more than an hour. They effected their 
retreat without being observed. It was risky work, because 
on their right when in the old palace there were dense 
groves of orange bushes, and to their rear was the enemy's 
piquet in Ludlow Castle. Taylor had ascertained that the 
roof of the Custom House had fallen in, but that the brick 
walls remained standing, and that the site was good for a 
battery. It, in fact, became the site of Battery No. 3. 

He also learnt that Ludlow Castle was the only place 
near, and outside the walls, which was occupied in force ; 
in other parts the vegetation was untrampled. Throughout 
July and August Taylor seized other opportunities to 
examine the ground and make plans for batteries. 

Once he was going with twenty men far in front of our ad- 
vanced posts, and had come to within sixty yards of a stone wall 
which crossed their path at right angles, when suddenly a 

203 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

couple of hundred sepoys sprang up, delivered a volley in their 
faces, and jumping the wall, tried to close with them. 

Taylor and his men, thinking discretion the better part 
of valour in a case like this, turned and bolted like rabbits 
into the brushwood. Fortunately the fire had been bad, 
and no one was badly hurt, but they had to run half a mile 
to get clear, and escaped into Metcalfe's piquet. 

On another occasion, Taylor says, Ludlow Castle seemed 
to be unoccupied and he ran down to it alone, and was 
taking observations from the flat roof when he suddenly 
perceived the head of a regiment entering the gateway 
beneath him : quietly the Engineer officer crept downstairs^ 
went out at a door on the other side of the house and 
climbed the garden wall unnoticed. 

By these close observations made in broad daylight 
Taylor was able to find out where the breaching batteries 
could be most successful. 

Every night he unfolded his facts and plans to Baird- 
Smith, who at length laid them before General Wilson at 
headquarters. 

The general read the report with astonishment, and 
some show of doubt. " Very important, Baird-Smith, if 
true and exact : but I question whether Captain Taylor has 
really gone so far as Ludlow Castle, let alone the Khoodsia 
Bagh." Upon this General Nicholson broke in : " Look here, 
general, I will undertake to go with Captain Taylor to Ludlow 
Castle and will report the result." Accordingly Taylor 
conducted John Nicholson at midnight into Ludlow Castle, 
which happened to be unoccupied, for the sepoys often left 
it empty for an hour between the relief of the garrison. 

Then Taylor took his friend down to the old palace, 
and finally got him safely back to camp : no doubt he felt 
a little sore at his word being doubted. But Taylor was 
not a man to complain or feel a grievance. 

Nicholson made such a report, that General Wilson 
made no more objections to Taylor's plans and projects; 
and, being an artilleryman himself, he must have fully 

204 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

realised the importance of a close examination of the 
ground and the lie of the guns. 

After this Nicholson used to go every day on the works 
for the batteries, very often from an hour before dawn until 
sunset : he did this partly that he might arrange for any 
movement of troops which Taylor desired. How the 
batteries, when finished, did their work we have already 
seen in a previous chapter : Taylor's chief trouble was in 
removing the old brick walls of the Custom House which 
partly blocked one battery. 

On the evening of 7th September they began to trace 
the assailing batteries, and worked so hard that by the 
next morning they had mounted one gun: the sepoys 
noticed it and sent out a sortie from the Lahore gate, which 
was defeated ; and as the enemy's guns could not fire while 
their own men were out, it gave the Engineers time to 
complete five platforms and mount five guns which im- 
mediately opened fire. Brind and Kaye soon rendered the 
Mori and Kashmir bastions harmless. By dawn of the 
11th, No. 2 battery had been completed— the third battery 
under Captain Medley, placed only 160 yards from the 
Water bastion, was armed by the night of the 11th. 

A fourth battery under the gallant Tombs, for throwing 
shells, was traced near the old palace and completed on 

the 11th. 

Then the two sides proceeded fiercely to pound one 
another, until on the afternoon of the 13th Wilson and 
Baird-Smith thought the breaches sufficient. 

But Taylor did not consider his work over even when 
his batteries had made the breaches, and our men had 
won the ramparts of the city. On 18th September, when he 
saw how Nicholson, and after him Colonel Greathed, had 
failed to carry Burn bastion, Taylor applied for a large 
body of men, and with these he occupied a large block of 
houses between the workshops and the Begum's gardens; 
it was Wilde's regiment that took possession. Sir John 
Kaye writes : " Ever to the front, ever active, ever fertile 

205 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

in resources, the Engineer brigade had much to do, and did 
it well. It had been terribly shattered during the assault : 
few had escaped " — (on the 14th Lieutenant Tandy had 
been killed, Lieutenant Salkeld died a few days after, 
when blowing in the Kashmir gate, and eight other 
Engineer officers were wounded). 

It was Taylor who suggested to the commander-in- 
chief that, instead of fighting in the open streets, the 
Engineers should work through the sheltered houses to the 
Burn bastion. A little friction arose at first with the 
brigade officers, but this soon passed away. We have seen 
in the chapter on Lord Roberts how successful this plan 
was, and how economical of life. Kaye writes : '* Taylor was 
one who thought nothing impossible ; all men worked under 
him with the heartiest goodwill, for he animated and inspired 
all who came into contact with him in battery or in trench. 
The younger officers of the Engineers swore by him." 

Sir John Lawrence wrote to Lord Dalhousie on 
14th January 1858 : " Up to the capture of Delhi, the 
scales were trembling in the balance. The Punjabis of all 
classes have behaved admirably . . . still, if Delhi had 
not fallen, we must have been ruined. Had the troops 
retreated, all must have been lost. To Nicholson, Alexander 
Taylor of the Engineers and Neville Chamberlain the 
real merit of our success is due. Alexander Taylor, 
though only the second Engineer before Delhi, was really 
the officer who designed and arranged all the scientific 
operations which led to the success of the assault, and in 
the actual attack was as forward as any man that day."^ 

General Sir F. Maunsell, the Engineer officer in charge 
of the right attack, writes : " I can frankly state that none 
of us were capable of doing what Taylor did : we doubtless 
all thought ourselves fine fellows — more or less — but as to 
a mastery or control of the great questions and issues 
involved, we were nowhere as compared with him ... we 
all believed in him as a first-rate man." 

^ Bosworth Smith's Lord Lawrence^ vol. li. p. 251. 

206 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

It is only of late that the importance of the siege of 
Delhi has been recognised : the great anxiety as to the fate 
of Lucknow wibh its women and children took all the 
public attention at the time, and Delhi was almost 
ignored. 

Sir Henry Norman writes : " Throughout the operations 
Taylor seems to have been omnipresent, and to bear a 
charmed life . . . the plan of the attack was bold and 
skilful. . . . Pandy can fight well behind cover, but here 
he was outmanoeuvred ; his attention was diverted from 
the real point of attack until the last (by the feint on the 
right) and then the cover on the left was seized at the 
right moment, without loss, and all its advantages turned 
against him." 

Taylor himself pays a tribute to the services of his chief, 
Baird-Smith : " He did all that could be done by a chief 
Engineer of great capacity, but crippled by heavy sickness ; 
took a sound view of our position and its requirements, and 
gave firm and wise council to General Wilson, more than 
once. . . . For all this grand work he deserved the thanks, not 
only of the Delhi field force, but of every white face to the 
north of Delhi, whose fate depended on our success." 

After the fall of Delhi, Colonel Baird-Smith left in a 
bullock-cart, being too ill to ride on horseback : Taylor 
took up the command, and was told to restore the battered 
fortifications and strengthen the bastions. 

Taylor would rather have served with one of the 
columns destined to put down rebellion in the North-West 
Provinces ; but duty was duty to him. However, his plans, 
which were approved by General Wilson, were thought 
by Sir John Lawrence too ambitious : probably Sir John 
thought that the time for rebuilding had not yet come, 
and that Taylor was wanted elsewhere. So, in November, 
Taylor went to Agra in command of the Engineer 
Brigade, and on the 10th of December joined Seaton's 
column at Alighur, south-east of Delhi, just in time to 
take part in the brilliant cavalry engagement at Khas- 

207 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

gunge, in which the Carabineers and Hodson's Horse so ably 
distinguished themselves. 

Colonel Sir Edward Thackeray, V.C., who was attached 
to Seaton's column, gives a vivid picture of Hodson 
thoroughly enjoying himself as a Paladin of the olden 
time. 

It was early in the morning of 17th December, while 
the dawn was yet cool and grey, the column was near 
Puttiali, when distant shots were heard. Taylor and 
Hodson, attended by some of his troopers, rode forward to 
reconnoitre : they reached a village which seemed to be 
deserted ; there was no sign of life, the gates were built up, 
and there was no admittance. 

Taylor sent two men back for some powder-bags to blow 
up one of the gates : meanwhile both officers dismounted ; 
and, while Taylor and Thackeray lay down under a tree for 
a short nap, Hodson took a hog- spear and wandered about 
on a voyage of discovery. 

He happened at length to stray into an enclosed yard, 
at one end of which was a long, low one-storeyed house : 
the door was fast bolted. Taking a run and a kick 
Hodson forced open the central door, but found not what 
he had expected. Instead of an empty house, he saw dimly 
in the darkness of the room ten swordsmen in front of him ; 
and he remembered too late that he had left his pistol and 
sword elsewhere. 

In a moment the sepoys stepped forward to attack him ! 

Hodson seized the situation in a flash, stepped back one 
pace into the yard, and, as each swordsman came through 
the narrow doorway, so low that he had to stoop and could 
not immediately use his sword, Hodson met him with a 
spear thrust. 

Taylor says that this occurred within a few yards of 
where he had been lying down : Hodson came back to 
Taylor and said, " Come and have a look at what I have 
found in here." 

They went together, the troopers following, and Taylor 

208 




HODSON AND HIS BOAR-SPEAR 

While wandering through a village with a boar-spear in his hand, Hodson came across 
a low building with locked door. He burst it open with his foot, and discovered ten 
armed men. Instead of making a judicious retreat, he laid each one low by a spear 
thrust as he emerged from the doorwaj'. 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

was rather horrified to see ten armed men, dead or dying, 
stretched about the floor of the room. 

" Either their Hves or mine, Taylor — theirs for choice." 

It was wonderful to see how cool and resourceful the 
great scout was in sudden danger. Taylor did not know 
that his own trial was near at hand ; for, after going to 
the gateway to ascertain how best to dispose of the powder- 
bags, he began to stroll along the foot of the village wall. 

There was a low round tower springing out of this wall 
and covered with creepers : into this Taylor climbed, got 
through a narrow window and found a staircase which 
brought him on to the flat, mud roof. There was not a 
sound to be heard nor a soul moving. 

He began to advance slowly and cautiously, as he had 
so often done at Ludlow Castle, when he suddenly spied a 
man on a neighbouring roof on the other side of a very 
narrow street ! This man was kneeling, but not saying 
his prayers : no, for Taylor perceived a long matchlock 
levelled at him. 

Resourceful as Hodson, but not perhaps quite so cool, 
Taylor gave a wild shout, rushed straight at the sepoy and 
cleared the narrow passage at a bound (had he not learnt 
to jump in Switzerland?). The dark man did not wait for 
more ; he thought a white devil was coming, dropped his 
gun and vanished. 

So, Taylor had a story to tell Hodson while the powder- 
bags were being placed close to the gate : the village was 
found to be deserted after all. When they came next 
morning to Puttiali, Taylor, riding along the front, easily 
ascertained the position of the guns, as each foolishly fired 
on him when he came opposite ; then Taylor sent a plan to 
General Seaton and suggested where his guns could enfilade 
the fort. In consequence, the enemy, although some 5000 
strong, broke and fled before our infantry could arrive, 
leaving all their guns and carriage in our hands. 

Towards the end of the year Taylor joined the force 
under the commander-in-chief, and was sent to Cawnpur to 
o 209 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

prepare an Engineer Park for the siege of Lucknow, and a 
bridge of casks for the passage of the Gumti River. He 
was in command of the Bengal Engineers at the capture of 
Lucknow, and was wounded at the taking of the Begum 
Koti, or Palace, by the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab 
Rifles, led by the chivalrous Adrian Hope. 

Taylor never completely recovered from his wound : for 
the bullet passed through the leg a few inches above the 
knee. 

In a letter to a friend Taylor writes : " We had got 
into the palace and had made good headway. I had 
mounted up to the highest pinnacle to see what was ahead 
of me, and what further could be done. Pandy, in an 
adjoining house, took advantage of me." 

It was on this day, 11th March 1858, that Hodson was 
mortally wounded. Colonel Chalmers wrote : " Captain 
Hodson, the best cavalry officer in this, or indeed I think 
in any other service, is very dangerously wounded. . . . 
Major Taylor of the Engineers is also wounded, and has 
had to lie up, and is a great loss. As in reality he was the 
man who planned the taking of Delhi, so here ... he has 
pushed on in the face of opposition. . . . The consequence 
of his wound was the giving up of a quarter of a mile of 
street we had got." 

But even when our men had got through the breach at 
the palace and crushed the main opposition, there still 
remained hundreds of sepoys hiding in the various rooms 
and cellars. One encounter of Lieutenant MacBean with 
eleven men won him the Victoria Cross. 

Forbes-Mitchell in his Reminiscences gives the story. 

Paddy MacBean, as the men called him, met a havildar, 
a naik, and nine sepoys at one gate of the palace, and killed 
ten of them one after the other. The havildar was the 
last to come out, and by this time several of our men had 
come up to help their comrade. 

" Stand back, boys ; fair play for the havildar," shouted 
MacBean : thereat he made a feint to cut, but instead 

210 



THE MAN WHO TOOK DELHI 

lowered his point and ran his opponent through the 
chest. 

It is said that this strong young man had been an 
Inverness-shire ploughman before he enlisted, and rose from 
the ranks to command the regiment, dying a major- 
general. 

Next morning the Begum Palace presented a strange 
spectacle with its enormous mirrors, lamps and chandeliers, 
with dead Highlanders and sepoys lying about on the rich 
carpets : the smell of burnt clothing and hair was horrible 
and large parties of camp-followers were brought in to 
drag out the dead. For on our side we had lost 75 officers 
and 800 men killed or wounded. 

As soon as Taylor was well enough he took his first 
furlough to Europe after an absence of fifteen years. 

Lord Canning wrote to thank him for his great services, 
and that was his only reward for some time. 

In 1861 he returned to India and was off'ered the post 
of Chief Engineer of the Central Provinces : but the family 
instinct was strong in him ; he chose rather to return to 
his old work in the Punjab, the completion of the grand 
trunk road. 

However, he saw some more active service under General 
Neville Chamberlain ; was appointed Chief Engineer in 
the Punjab, and in 1876 was designated Quarter-Master- 
General at Simla : but as an affection of the eyes threatened 
him with loss of sight, Taylor went to Europe and con- 
sulted a famous German occulist. Dr. Meurer, who effected a 
cure. 

In 1876 he returned to India and was appointed 
Secretary to Government in the Public Works Department, 
but soon resigned, and on coming home succeeded Sir 
George Chesney as President of the Royal Engineering 
College at Cooper's Hill; this post he filled for sixteen 
years. Taylor became at once a favourite with all members 
of the College staff": he regarded the professors as his 
colleagues and consulted them without reserve. Beino- 

211 



GENERAL SIR A. TAYLOR, G.C.B. 

intensely religious, he looked upon moral discipline and 
example as the highest ideal to aim at, and insisted upon 
regularity in attendance at the Chapel services. He still 
kept his interest in yachting and athletic sports, and though 
old in years acted as though he were young. 

The obituary notice in the Cooper's Hill Magazine says : 
" Sir Alexander was loved and respected by every one with 
whom he came into contact : he was a firm friend, and 
always did his best to help those who were in any sort 
of trouble. He was a strict disciplinarian, but generally 
had a strong tendency to take a merciful view of a case. 
But in the event of anything of grave importance taking 
place, he was the very last person any student of Cooper's 
Hill cared to meet." 

He died on 25th February 1912, at the ripe age of 
eighty -six. 

From a memoir by Col. Sir Edward Thackeray in the R. E. 
Journal, by kind permission of the Editors, from papers by 
Gen. Sir F. R. Maunsell and from other sources. 



212 



CHAPTER X 

SIR HENRY AND JOHN LORD LAWRENCE: 
THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

THE Lawrences were sprung from the mixed races of 
Scot and Irish that we find in Ulster. The cool 
caution of the Scot mixes with the more genial 
humour of the Irish Celt, and sometimes one member of a 
family inherits the one characteristic and another inherits 
the other. 

Henry was five years older than John and had more of 
the Irishman in him : John was at heart a Scot, sometimes 
rather hard and dour, but with lovable qualities. 

Their mother, Letitia Catherine Knox, was a business- 
like woman, who kept the family together when her 
husband, Colonel Alexander Lawrence, by his habit of 
speaking his mind too freely, failed to make his mark as 
he might have done. 

In 1813 the three elder sons, Alexander, George, and 
Henry, were sent to the Grammar School of Londonderry, 
now Foyle College, presided over by their mother's brother, 
the Rev. James Knox. There they drank in something 
of the daring spirit of old Derry, whose watchword "No 
surrender ! " seems to have been before Sir Henry's mind 
in his last agony at Lucknow. Mr. Huddlestone, a con- 
nection of Mrs. Lawrence, kindly gave some of the boys 
cadetships in the East India Company. 

Henry went to Addiscombe, being selected for the 
artillery. In 1822 he arrived at Calcutta and was quartered 
at Dum-Dum, where he stayed three years, when the 
Burmese war broke out and Lawrence was summoned to 

213 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

serve under Colonel Lindsay. Fever caught in the swamps 
of Arracan compelled him to go to the sanatorium at 
Penang, and thence to Canton. 

Here he began to study surveying — a knowledge which 
was to serve him in good stead ; for on going home he 
joined the Irish Survey, and here he met his cousin, 
Honoria Marshall, a young lady of deep religious feeling 
and artistic instincts, whom Lawrence afterwards married. 

On his return to India he passed in the native languages 
at Cawnpur, and Lord William Bentinck, at George 
Lawrence's request, appointed Henry assistant to the 
Revenue Survey of India. 

This was the final and most important element in his 
education : for while engaged on survey work he got into 
touch with the real natives, with the peasant proprietors 
and the landowners, and thus grew to sympathise with 
them in their troubles and distress. His wife lived with 
him now in a tiny hut or tent and became his helper in 
every work of justice and mercy. 

Here he learnt the good policy of making light assess- 
ments so that the poor cultivator might have a chance of 
gaining a profit out of his toil ; in making roads and 
bridges and putting the native usurer out of countenance. 

Here, too, they conceived the idea of the Lawrence 
Asylums, to save the children of our soldiers from early 
death in the heat of the plains. 

In 1841, Henry Lawrence marched with a Sikh con- 
tingent to Kabul, but won no honours from Government. 

However, soon after this. Lord Ellenborough made him 
Resident at the Court of Nepal. Some articles he wrote 
from here for the Calcutta Review attracted the notice of 
the new Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge. He soon 
appointed Henry Lawrence to be political officer on the 
frontier ; at Lahore Henry trusted the Sikhs as some 
thought dangerously, but kept the turbulent natives in 
check, and exerted such a good influence on Golab Singh, 
the Jummu chief, that that worthy abolished suttee and 

214 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

slavery throughout his dominions. In 1847, Lawrence went 
home, and the Queen made him a Knight Commander of 
the Bath. 

After his return to India, Lord Dalhousie annexed the 
Punjab, and made Sir Henry president of a governing Board, 
having for his colleagues his brother John and Mr. Mansel. 

Sir Henry's policy was to be lenient, merciful, and 
kind : twice he visited all the stations in the Punjab, riding 
thirty or forty miles a day. Good authorities say that his 
work at this period did much to quell the Mutiny that was 
coming. For he made the Sikhs our true and faithful 
friends. John Lawrence sent them to Delhi to help us on 
the Ridge, and he has been deservedly praised for all he 
did. But if it had not been for his brother's generous 
policy, he could not have sent a man from the Punjab. 

Montgomery, a friend of Sir Henry, joined the Board ; 
but it happened that he more often sided with John, for 
both of them felt that Henry's chivalrous spirit led him 
into extravagant measures. The condition of the Sikh 
nobility grieved Sir Henry and he longed to help them. 
The friction between the brothers came to Lord Dalhousie's 
ears, and when both sent in their resignation, he determined 
to dissolve the Board and appoint Henry's younger brother, 
John, sole ruler in the Punjab. He offered Henry the 
Agency to the Governor-General in Rajputana. Sir Henry 
accepted this with a bitter sense of injury done him, and 
with the feeling that he had been right in his dealings 
with the native princes, and his brother had been wrong. 

" To know Sir Henry was to love him," said one of his 
friends. 

Bosworth Smith writes : " Nobody has ever done so 
much towards bridr^ing over the gulf that separates race 
from race, colour from colour, and creed from creed ; nobody 
has ever been so beloved, nobody has ever deserved to 
be so beloved, as Sir Henry Lawrence " ^ 

When the time came for him to quit Lahore, in 
^ Life of Lord Lawrence, Smith, Elder & Co, 

215 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

January 1853, a long procession of weeping native chiefs 
followed his carriage, some for ten miles, some for twenty, 
from the city. His sun was set, and they could not be 
expecting favours to come : but they wished to testify 
their grief and their gratitude for one who had protected 
those that were down. Robert Napier (Lord Napier of 
Magdala) was the last to take leave of him and bade 
him an affectionate farewell. So to Rajputana Sir Henry 
fared. First he visited the gaols and made them more 
healthy ; many prisoners he released. The Rajput princes 
he incited to put down widow-burning and think a little 
of the welfare of their subjects. 

But a great trouble came upon him when his beloved 
wife, who had done so much to help him with his work 
and to cheer him in his hours of depression, sickened 
and died. 

Then he was all for going home, to see his old friends 
in Ireland : but a new governor-general, who had heard 
of the wonderful and engaging qualities of the man, 
offered him the commissionership of Oudh. 

The disappointed man plucked up health and spirits 
at the honour done him and the recognition it showed 
of the important work he had already effected. 

But the appointment was made a few years too late : 
Sir Henry found Oudh seething with discontent ; the 
princes were in the dust, and kept there in abject poverty, 
so that their ladies were forced to drive out after dark 
in order to sell their shawls and jewels in the bazaars. 

The stipends of the old nobility had been neglected, 
and one of the first things Sir Henry did was to invite 
them to the Residency and pay up what was due. 

The country was full of disbanded soldiers, every man 
an enemy of the Company ; for their future had been 
ruined. The sepoy^s privileges had been taken from him, 
his pay was poor, his pension — if it came at all — could 
only be obtained when he was too old to enjoy it: many 
rajahs believed that the English Government had broken 

^16 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

faith with them, and were ready to listen to the agitators 
who swore the Christians were resolved to do away with 
caste and change their religion. In the Punjab, Henry 
Lawrence had won the trust and confidence of the Sikhs, 
chiefs and people alike. 

As long ago as 1843, he had written a paper on the 
condition of the native army, insisting on the importance 
of the sepoys being well paid, disciplined, and rendered 
absolutely reliant on the good faith of the Government. 
He had predicted all that followed at Delhi and elsewhere, 
if the dangers should be overlooked. But his paper was 
lost in the waste-paper basket: now they expected him 
to stay the Mutiny ! 

Sir Henry Lawrence arrived at Lucknow and took 
charge of his province about 20th March. He found 
brigandage on the increase and took steps to crush it. 
Then the chiefs and princes were called to durbar, or 
spoken to in private, and assured of justice being done 
them. 

But, knowing the native mind as he did, Sir Henry 
perceived that things had gone too far for gentle measures 
only. 

There was an old Sikh fort, square and castellated, near 
the Residency, a tumble-down building on a site thirty 
feet above the road, which had long been used as a store- 
house. This fort Sir Henry had quietly cleared out and 
put in repair, that it might be a place of refuge in time 
of sudden emeute. 

On 1st May the 7th Oudh Infantry, stationed in a 
suburb of Lucknow, refused to use their cartridges: next 
day the regiment was surrounded and disarmed : the 
ringleaders were tried and punished, the loyal officers were 
promoted and rewarded. 

On 11th May the telegraph ceased to work and the postal 
service was disorganised : people began to feel uneasy. 

On the 14th, news came of the outbreak at Meerut 
and Delhi, and of the restoration of the old Mogul dynasty. 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

Sir Henry at once placed troops and guns in the old 
fort, and desired all English families to assemble in the 
Residency grounds. He also held the southern end of 
the cantonments with British troops. The Residency site 
was extensive, healthy, and supplied with water ; it possessed 
much house accommodation and shelter, and commanded 
the river face for half its circle. 

Lucknow is about five and a half miles long and two 
and a half broad, lying mainly along the southern or 
right bank of the Gumti, and encircled on its three 
other sides by a deep canal : it is forty-two miles east of 
Cawnpur. The Mutchi Bhown and the Residency lay close 
to the river, on its north bank, to the east of the stone and 
iron bridges. 

After 23rd May, the Sikh fort being now secured, 
batteries and defensive works were begun on the Residency, 
parapets and breastworks were raised, streets were blocked 
up which interfered with the defence, and many buildings 
were barricaded and loopholed. 

Meanwhile food and supplies came pouring in from the 
country, and none of the rebels thought of stopping them ! 

Sir Henry called in two bodies of pensioners, one of sepoys 
and one of Oudh artillerymen, both of whom gave loyal service 
during the siege, together with a body of trusty Sikhs. 

On 30th May, as the staff were at dinner, a faithful 
sepoy rushed in with the news that the sepoys had just 
broken out at evening gun-fire from their lines : they were 
gutting and burning the officers' houses and firing muskets 
wildly. 

At the main picket they had killed the officer in charge, 
Lieutenant Grant, and a stray shot had killed Brigadier 
Handscombe ! 

Sir Henry rose from dinner and moved to the Govern- 
ment House near the cantonment, which was guarded 
by the 13th Native Infantry, who had remained loyal. 
Captain Hardinge with his irregular cavalry patrolled the 
streets of the cantonment. 

218 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

Next morning the mutineers were attacked, defeated, 
and chased away ten miles or more : the city police dispersed 
a large body of bad characters who were trying to cross 
the river. 

The flight of the mutineers took off' some of the strain 
of anxiety, and enabled the besieged to know who were 
their friends. 

From 3rd June onward the news came of mutinies 
at Seetapur, at Faizabad, and elsewhere, and the conduct 
of the large landowners proved that they sympathised 
with the rebels. 

Kavanagh, writing about the night of the 30th, says : 
"Sir Henry was without fear for himself, and his noble 
nature melted at the thought of the danger in which we 
were soon to be involved. 

" A more unselfish man never breathed, he would 
willingly have walked to death to avert the doom that 
threatened his countrymen." 

It was indeed a fearful night for a sick man to pass 
who felt the heavy weight of responsibility upon him. 

The screams of the mutineers in their lines, stealthy, 
gliding figures passing in the streets from glare to shadow 
as they fired the thatched bungalows around, the crackling 
of blazing bamboos and the crash of falling roofs, all must 
have contributed to weaken the health of Sir Henry. 

By the 9th of June, under medical advice, he gave over 
temporary charge of his duties to a Council, with Mr. 
Gubbins at its head. But two days later, hearing that 
his policy of retaining native troops was being set aside, 
he resumed command and recalled many that had been 
sent away. 

On 11th June he wrote to Brigadier Inglis and informed 
him that now he was of opinion there should only be one 
position to defend : all the treasure, guns, stores, etc., in the 
Mutchi Bhown must be withdrawn into the Residency ; for 
the condition of Cawnpur troubled him, and he pushed on 
the defences of the Residency. 

S19 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

About ISth June cholera appeared and carried off many 
valuable lives and some children. On the same day the 
military police mutinied, and were pursued by volunteers 
from the Residency under Captain Forbes : this officer did 
valuable service with his volunteers in the surrounding 
country before the siege. But on the 28th the news came 
of Sir H. Wheeler's capitulation at Cawnpur, and at once 
everything was changed. 

The poor ladies in the Residency heard and discussed the 
awful tidings with white faces and reeling heads and 
sickened hearts. The men turned to thoughts of vengeance, 
and " Cawnpur " became the war-cry for severities which 
British soldiers of a later generation would be glad to 
disown. 

Meanwhile the Governor- General was writing home : 
" Sir Henry Lawrence is doing admirably at Lucknow ; all 
safe there."" On receiving this approval the Court of 
Directors named Sir Henry governor-general, in case Lord 
Canning should die. 

An honour paid to merit, and never known by Sir 
Henry : he, for his part, was preparing for his own death, — 
perhaps half wishing it might come soon. 

" If anything happens to me, I recommend that Colonel 
Inglis should succeed me in command . . . there should be 
no surrender. I commend my children and the Lawrence 
Asylums to Government." The Derry note of "No sur- 
render ! " was continually sounding in his ears. 

As soon as the mutineer regiments heard of the Cawnpur 
massacre they began to flock back to Lucknow. Sir Henry 
ordered a reconnaissance for 30th June to check their move- 
ment. He took a third of his garrison, ten guns, and one 
howitzer. But the enemy were in force, and defeated him 
at Chinhut with the loss of four officers, many men, and 
five guns ; the howitzer also was taken. 

Sir Henry, seeing his native artillerymen cut the traces 
of their guns, was heard to exclaim, " My God ! — and I 
brought them to this ! " 

220 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

As our wounded men struggled back many natives came 
from the houses along the road and offered them water and 
milk. 

Hundreds of people had been engaged at work in the 
Residency that day, but suddenly they all disappeared, as if 
by magic ! A few minutes after, the first fugitives from the 
fight came in with their tale of disaster. 

In a moment gates were shut and barred and batteries 
were manned : in the dark of the night of 1st July, Colonel 
Palmer silently withdrew his men from the Mutchi Bhown, 
and Lieutenant Thomas lighted a twenty-minute fuse to 
blow up the magazine. 

Thus the siege of the Residency began on 2nd July, and 
lasted till Havelock and Outram reinforced the besieged on 
S5th September. Kavanagh says that at first the higher 
and airy rooms were given to the officers' families, amid some 
competition for places. But the lofty rooms proved more 
dangerous, and soon the common peril levelled all distinc- 
tions of rank : for as the servants had deserted, the ladies 
had to do their own cooking, nursing, etc. During the 
whole siege there was food enough, owing to Sir Henry''s 
forethought. The 32nd Regiment formed the backbone of 
the defence, and contained many Cornish miners who were 
very useful. 

On the morning of the 2nd of July, Sir Henry went 
round early, inspecting every post and encouraging the 
garrison, telling men what they had to do, and steadying all 
in their duty. 

Sir Henry had chosen an upper room in the Residency, 
into which already one shell had penetrated. 

He would not change his room, because from it he could 
command a wide view over the city. 

A little before eight o'clock a.m. he lay down for a short 
rest after his labours, while he discussed business with 
Captain Wilson, his nephew George being on another bed 
at his side. 

At eight a shell burst in the room, bringing down part 

221 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

of the ceiling and filling the air with blinding smoke. 
George Lawrence was unhurt, Wilson's shirt was torn from 
his back. 

" Are you hurt, uncle ? " asked George Lawrence after 
a brief silence. 

" I think I am killed," was the reply. 

They carried him out under the verandah, and Sir Henry 
said to the doctor after he had examined the wound in his 
thigh, " How long have I to live, doctor ? " 

" Three days perhaps. Sir Henry.*" 

" I think not so long," murmured the shattered man. 
Then he turned his thoughts to the defence, and after giving 
instructions and naming Major Banks his successor in the 
civil administration, and Brigadier Inglis in the military 
command together with Major Anderson his chief Engineer, 
he repeated again and again, " No surrender ! " : and to one 
of his friends he said, "Bury me simply, with just a stone 
saying, ' Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his 
duty.' " He died on the morning of 4th July after hours of 
great agony, and his loss was lamented by many of all creeds 
and colours. " I feel as if at Lucknow and Delhi (Nicholson) 
I had lost the father and the brother of my public life," 
wrote Sir Herbert Edwardes to John Lawrence. "His 
loss just now will be a national calamity," was the reply. 
The brother who represented chivalry, generosity, and 
sympathy was gone : the stronger character of John 
Lawrence remained, to stamp out the last sparks of mutiny 
and to secure the English rule. 

John Lawrence, five years younger than Henry, like his 
brother was sent to Foyle College, where such heroes were 
educated as Lord Gough, " the most reckless of generals " ; 
Sir George Lawrence, the Afghan prisoner ; Sir Henry 
Lawrence, Sir Robert Montgomery. The last was John's 
intimate companion there, and in India, and writes of 
Lawrence as "determined and quick-tempered, recording 
that in their walks he used to entertain him with long 
stories of sieges and battles." For as a boy Lawrence read 

^22 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

history and biography, knew a good deal of the campaigns 
of Hannibal, was thoroughly conversant with Plutarch's 
Lives, and infinitely preferred reading about live men to 
studying dead languages. He tells us that at his prepara- 
tory school he was flogged every day, except one, when he 
was flogged twice. 

Even at Haileybury College, where he was sent to study 
for the Indian Civil Service, his industry was fitful ; but he 
passed out third for Bengal without having attracted much 
notice from his professors. Indeed, Principal Batten scolded 
his son for " loafing about with that tall Irishman " who 
seemed to be of no particular merit. At this time John 
Lawrence looked rugged and uncouth, but he had some 
Irish humour and plenty of keen intelligence : he did not 
much care for games, but would go long walks in the 
country or drive tandem. 

Henry, who was home on furlough, used to coach him 
up for his examinations. John was eighteen when he went 
to India with his brother Henry, and arrived at Calcutta 
in February 1830. Here they separated, Henry going to 
Kurnal, north of Delhi, John to Fort William College to 
study native languages. 

After passing in Hindustani and Persian he obtained a 
post at Delhi as assistant judge. Even at this time he had 
an old look in his face, an expression of hunger and care, 
with strong lines like Sir Colin Campbell's ; he was restless 
and eager to be doing something strenuous. 

One of his first discoveries was to catch the King of 
Delhi's Lord Chancellor forging deeds to his great profit. 

That swarthy nobleman was condemned to five years' 
labour on the public roads ; we doubt if the punishment 
did not appear to his countrymen unjustly severe. There 
are such things as privileges which seem venerable by their 
long usage. 

After four years at Delhi, Lawrence was transferred to a 
more northern district and nearer to his brother's post. 

Here he mixed freely with the natives, redressed wrongs, 

223 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

punished wrong-doers severely, and, where Henry would 
have made himself beloved, John was feared and respected. 

Once when Lawrence had fever and felt depressed, a 
friend dropped in for a chat. Lawrence heard him listlessly, 
until he happened to say he had just met a fakir. 

" Anything new ? " I asked the beggar. 

" Indeed there is,*" replied the fakir ; " old Sahib is 
gone, we all sorry ! for one Larens Sahib is come in his 
place." 

" What ! you don't like the new Sahib ? " 

" No, no ! such a change in my poor country ! all the 
rogues get punished now — all the revenue is collected — 
it is terrible — terrible for the country. '"* 

John Lawrence sat up and laughed ; the fever was 
quickly going, the man's unwilling testimony acted like a 
tonic ; he began to mend from that hour. 

One friend gave Lawrence the nickname of Oliver, 
because he was so like Cromwell, severe but just. A native 
officer said of him : " When he is in anger his voice is like a 
tiger's roar, and the pens tremble in the hands of the writers 
all round the room." 

In 1844, John Lawrence married Miss Hamilton, the 
daughter of a plucky justice of the peace in Donegal. 

As they were travelling in Italy the news of the Afghan 
rising came and of George Lawrence being held captive. 

They arrived at Bombay in November 1842 and went 
through the Central Provinces to Cawnpur, where they 
stayed with Richard Lawrence, the youngest of the Law- 
rence brothers. 

As John had at present no billet, he bought tents and 
horses and encamped about gipsy-fashion. One day they 
came upon a large encampment in the jungle; and as they 
gazed in wonder, a man in Afghan dress came out of a 
tent, shaded his eyes with his hand and then suddenly 
shouted — 

" Is that you, John ? " 

" Yes — but who on earth are you, sir ? " 

2U 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

"Well — I am your brother George — free after a long 
captivity." 

" What a chance — absurdly improbable," we should say 
if we met the story in fiction ; but reality has a habit of 
giving us rare shocks of joy and sorrow and of fear. 

George had much to tell of his perils among the 
Afghans, and John had his young wife to introduce. They 
spent a day together, and as they went on their way John 
heard he had been appointed civil and sessions judge at 
Delhi. 

It was owing to the years spent at Delhi, when he took 
stock of the yielding nature of the population, that John 
Lawrence advised an immediate assault on the city at the 
outset of the Mutiny. Here in 1845 the new Governor- 
General, Sir Henry Hardinge, met him, saw his strong 
points, and, after the Punjab had been annexed, made him 
ruler over the Jullundur Doab, a country lying between the 
rivers Sutlej and Beas. 

Here he enforced his three commandments : " Thou shalt 
not burn thy widow '"' : " Thou shalt not kill thy daughters "" : 
" Thou shalt not bury alive thy lepers." 

In 1853 he was made chief commissioner of the 
Punjab, and gradually collected near him a coterie of 
strong men : Richard Temple, Nicholson, Chamberlain, 
Edwardes, Montgomery, Lumsden, Daly, and others. 

At this time we are told he was curt in his speech, 
very sharp in mastering details, used no complimentary 
phrases to the chiefs, and used to sit in his room with 
his shirt-sleeves turned up, to the horror of his Indian 
attendants. 

In 1851, Lord Dalhousie pressed him to go home to 
recruit his health ; but John Lawrence declined, saying 
that in 1855 he would have served his time and be entitled 
to his annuity : "I do not think I have more than three 
or four years of good honest work left in me." 

Yet this man was to work on in the Punjab seven years 
longer, meeting the sepoy mutiny with strong, unflinching 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

resolution ; he was to serve four years at home in the Indian 
Council, and return to India as Viceroy for five years of hard 
work, and then return to work in London as chairman of 
the School Board ! 

Perhaps the long apprenticeship to the strenuous labour 
of governing a people many of whom had been robbers and 
murderers from their cradles, steeled this man's heart and 
mind and purpose to work on till the night came. 

His wife, too, possessed much the same spirit of resist- 
ance ; for in 1855, though she was very ill and was ordered 
home by the doctors, she stoutly refused to quit her 
husband's side, and thus was enabled to support him by 
her sympathy through the trying months of the Mutiny. 

Even that tower of strength, John Nicholson, gave his 
chief much anxiety at times by his overbearing and way- 
ward conduct. 

Nicholson resented having to account for his punitive 
measures. 

The following was his official report to the chief com- 
missioner of one of his prompt sallies : — 

"Sir, — I have the honour to report that a man came 
into my compound to-day, intending to kill me, and that 
I shot him dead. — Your obedient servant, 

"John Nicholson." 

On 4th May 1857, John Lawrence visited Sealkote, a 
depot for the new military instruction ; he wished to see 
for himself the feelings of the sepoys, and wrote to Lord 
Canning a favourable report ! On 12th May came the 
telegram from Delhi announcing the outbreak of the 
Mutiny ! Henry Lawrence, the man of sympathy, had 
foreseen this result many years before. But when Sir John 
Lawrence had the scales dashed from his eyes, he acted 
promptly, and so did Montgomery, disarming the sepoys 
at Lahore before they could think twice about mutiny- 
Lawrence at this time was suffering from neuralgia, but 
when the news came from Delhi he left his bed of pain and 

226 



THE GREAT TWIN BRETHREN 

sent off letters and telegrams in all directions, taking upon 
him to stir up and direct the commander-in-chief, General 
Anson. " Everything now depends on energy and resolu- 
tion : a week or two hence it may be too late.'' Even to 
the Governor-General, Lord Canning, Lawrence wrote in 
peremptory style : " Send for our troops from Persia. In- 
tercept the force now on its way to China and bring it to 
Calcutta. Every European soldier will be required to save 
the country." 

To his subordinates Sir John wrote: "Disarm the 
regulars if you suspect them, hunt them down if they 
mutiny, enlist the Sikhs, collect camels, remove Hindustanis 
from posts of trust, arrest all fakirs, examine sepoys' 
letters; don't wait to be directed, but act on your own 
responsibility." 

Sir John could trust his brilliant colleagues, and the 
Punjab under their instant and fearless action saved India. 

But we must remember that the gentle, sympathetic rule 
of Sir Henry Lawrence had won over the allegiance of the 
Sikhs and made it possible to send the Guides and other 
forces to hejp the army before Delhi. 

With all Sir John's sternness, he never lost his head in 
the day of danger, never called for indiscriminate vengeance. 

" I would not hang a bird on such evidence," he once 
remarked as some charge was being pressed against a 
native. 

While praising the active, he thundered against the 
inefficient. Writing to Sir Bartle Frere, he complained: 
"I do assure you, some of our commanders are worse 
enemies than the mutineers themselves." 

Sir John trusted the old Sikh gunners who had fought 
against us in the two Sikh wars: he sent them down to 
Delhi and they fought loyally : he even picked out a body 
of the despised " sweeper " caste, and sent them as sappers 
and miners : they deserved well, won the esteem of their 
officers, and thus a noble self-respect redeemed them from 
their traditional degradation. 

^^7 



SIR HENRY AND JOHN LAWRENCE 

In short, it was from the Punjab, and at Sir John's 
suggestion, that siege trains were fitted out, that transport 
trains were organised, that horses, saddles, tents, ammuni- 
tion were dispatched when they were needed. And all 
the time the danger of mutiny was at his own door ! but 
Lawrence thought of the safety of India first, and of the 
Punjab afterwards. 

He braved the peril of the Mutiny as much in his lonely 
office as the most dashing officer on the field of battle. 
Therefore we must count Sir John Lawrence a hero of the 
Indian Mutiny. 



^28 



CHAPTER XI 

F.-M. SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN : 
THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

HENRY WYLIE NORMAN was born in the parish 
of St. Luke's in London on 2nd December 1826. 
As a boy he was left much to himself, and never 
saw his father until he landed in India in 1842. Norman's 
mother followed her husband to Cuba and other West 
Indian islands, only revisiting England at rare intervals. 
She left her son in charge of her own parents, Henry and 
Charlotte Wylie, who lived sometimes at Bridlington Quay, 
sometimes in Ireland, Mrs. Wylie's native country. 

Norman's education was intermittent : three private 
schools played a part in moulding his mind and character, 
but he seems to have been more beholden to his own love 
of reading at every spare minute. 

"My favourite subjects," he writes, "even when t was 
very young, were naval and military histories, voyages and 
biographies." 

Of his father Norman wrote : " My father was a sailor, 
and when only twenty-two years of age went as supercargo 
of a ship, eventually settling in Havana as a merchant. It was 
usual for merchants in those days to send a vessel on a sort of 
cruise in charge of a supercargo, who traded on his employer's 
account, and when he had a full cargo, came home. 

" My father had many adventures when trading, and once 
his vessel was in the hands of pirates, when he narrowly 
escaped with his life, and showed so much adroitness that 
the pirates left his ship without discovering a quantity of 
specie hidden on board." 

229 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

In London, the boy Norman saw the festivities at the 
accession of Queen Victoria, and was inspired with a desire 
to emulate the great soldiers. He says : "I rejoiced to see 
with my own eyes the great duke, Marshal Soult, Lord 
Lynedoch, and others well known to xnefrom my reading ^ 

In Ireland he saw the parades at Limerick, while the 
faction fights in Tipperary stirred his blood, and perhaps 
his sense of humour. 

In June 1842 he accompanied his mother to Calcutta 
in the frigate Ellenhorough. The long voyage round the 
Cape prompted him to ask if he might take the duties 
of a midshipman, having learnt how to determine longitude 
and latitude. By the time they reached Calcutta, Norman 
was yearning to join the mercantile marine, but talks with 
his father and the news of the day — of the advance of 
Pollock and Nott into Afghanistan — turned the thoughts 
of the sixteen-year-old boy into new channels. 

He was now eager to join the army, and frequently 
attended the parades of the 10th Foot quartered at Fort 
William : he also studied Hindustani and military history 
during the enforced leisure of eighteen months which elapsed 
before he got his nomination. 

The doctor who examined him laughed at his small size 
and weight : " You are thin and must fill out," he remarked. 
But this Norman failed to accomplish. Seven stone and a 
half were all he owned of bone and flesh, but he had a good 
brain and constitution ! Norman chose the 1st Bengal 
Native Infantry, because it was the senior native corps at 
the largest garrison, and he hoped to be able to learn his 
military duties better at a large station. 

In June 1844, Norman left Calcutta for Dinapur by 
palanquin : on the third day, while waiting for a change of 
bearers, his old bearers decamped, and he fell asleep owing 
to the great heat. 

He was roused from his slumbers by an English voice : 
a planter named Renshaw asked him to his bungalow and 
procured him fresh bearers. 

230 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

Eleven years later it fell to Norman's lot to command a 
detachment of troops for punishing some Santals who had 
murdered this same planter and his son. 

On joining the steamer at Rajmahal, he made friends 
with Lieutenant R. A. Yule of the 16th Lancers, who was 
afterwards killed before Delhi. 

At Dinapur, Norman joined his regiment, then under 
Major Rowcroft, and spent his time in learning his profession 
until March 1845, when a vacancy occurred in the 31st 
Native Infantry, to which he was posted. This change 
saved him a terrible doom, for the first regiment which he 
left was destined to be stationed at Cawnpur, mutinied and 
shot its officers. At the time Norman regretted the ex- 
change. 

By 25th March he reached Almora, the headquarters 
of the 31st, placed on the lower slopes of the Himalayas, 
north-east of Delhi. Almora was a very attractive station ; 
from this point excursions were made to the glaciers, or to 
tea plantations in Kumaon. 

At the close of the year news came that the Sikh army 
had crossed the Sutlej, and the 31st were expecting to go 
to the front. 

Colonel Weston chose Norman, to his great surprise and 
delight, as adjutant of the wing sent oif under Major 
Corfield to Bareilly. He was still a few weeks under nine- 
teen ! 

At Bareilly he used to take walks with his munshi, or 
teacher of languages, and through him he learnt reports of 
what had occurred in the war before the same came to the 
ears of the general. 

Always Norman was on good terms with native officers, 
and from some of these he gathered information of the 
desire in the hearts of the people to restore the native chiefs 
and bring down the British Raj. 

Fortunately Sir Henry Smith's victories at Aliwal and 
Sobraon in January and February 1846 convinced those 
meditating mutiny that the time had not yet arrived. 

231 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

In 1847, Norman's regiment was ordered to Lahore, 
where Colonel Colin Campbell was in command of the 
garrison : hence the lifelong friendship between Lord Clyde 
(Sir Colin) and Norman had its origin. 

The Sikhs had been beaten but not vanquished. All 
the gates of Lahore had to be held by strong guards under 
British officers. 

" Brigadier Colin Campbell," writes Norman, " always 
made me breakfast and lunch with him when on guard, and 
often employed me to copy out confidential letters. In this 
way I learned thoroughly to admire this kind-hearted, but 
quick-tempered old soldier. To me it was delightful to 
hear his stories of the old wars, and listen to his doctrine 
of the duty the officer owed to his men. . . . May we have 
more men like him when our next great struggle comes ! " 

During this year Norman got to know the three 
brothers Lawrence, and Lumsden, Herbert Edwardes, 
Reynell Taylor, and Nicholson : with such friends the 
young man quickly increased in knowledge, if little in 
stature. 

In January 1848, the 31st Regiment left Lahore for 
Ferozepur. On his arrival the doctor diagnosed small-pox, 
and he was assiduously nursed by one of his own sepoys. 
Then on recovery he was sent to Simla for six months. 

Norman had just been promoted to the rank of lieutenant 
and was regretting his being placed on the sick list when 
the news of the murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson at 
Multan reached his hill-station. He heard at the same 
time that he was recommended as adjutant of his regiment. 
He felt no longer sick, and hurried down to the hot 
plains : but his regiment was not ordered to Multan until 
October. 

The prospect of fighting acted as a tonic on all the 
soldiers : the hospital soon grew empty. Only three sick 
men stayed behind ; for the 31st were all proud to serve 
under so good a soldier as Sir Hugh Gough. 

Norman, too, felt the magnetic influence of a general 

232 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

brave and yet tender, whose deep religious feeling, chivalry, 
and care for his men appealed to all. 

The second Sikh War of 1848 gave Norman his first 
experiences in big battles and long pursuits. As adjutant 
he had many hours of work in his tent when others were 
resting : but he loved the work. 

We cannot enter into the details of the battles in which 
the Sikhs fought so bravely, and nearly gained decisive 
successes more than once. 

He served under Gilbert and General Penney in the 
crowning victory of Gujerat in February 1849, and took 
part in the final pursuit of the Sikh army. 

Norman's regiment then returned to Peshawur, whence 
in 1850 Norman, as brigade -major, accompanied Sir Colin 
Campbell against the Afridis. He served also in similar 
expeditions for keeping down the robbers of the frontier, 
and was thanked by General A. Roberts, father of Earl 
Roberts, as " being possessed of all the qualifications for a 
good soldier and a first-rate staff officer." 

In 1853, after going out against the Afridis, Norman 
married the daughter of Dr. Davidson, a lady of great 
character and devoted to her husband. 

In 1854, General A. Roberts retired, and thanked 
Norman in a letter for his talent for detail combined with 
suavity of manner. 

From such hints we can build up the character of the 
man : religious, conscientious, painstaking, and — the opposite 
of Nicholson — courteous and pleasing in manner : a lover 
of the natives, careful of his men, and winning their love in 
return ; above all, learned in his profession. From Peshawur 
and frontier wars Norman was transferred to Ambala, and 
manoeuvres under Sydney Cotton. 

Just as he was feeling the change irksome, news came of 
a rising of the Santals in Bengal : his own regiment was 
ordered out from Barrackpur, and Norman got leave to 
join it. He disliked the methods to which they were 
obliged to have recourse in order to drive the brave, but 

233 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

ill-armed Santals out of the dense jungle, where no cavalry 
or infantry could penetrate. Bows and battle-axes against 
rifles was an unfair fight ; but these men had been maddened 
by the extortions of the moneylender and tax-gatherer, and 
were slaying all they met of either sex. The only thing 
was to draw a cordon of troops round them, and leave the 
tiger and wild boar and the pangs of hunger to do the rest. 

But what Norman did like was the opportunity of living 
in close and familiar association with his native soldiers, 
some of whom he had known well six years before. He 
remained with this detachment until January 1856 : in this 
way he became intimately acquainted with the native char- 
acter and language, and learnt from his men how the an- 
nexation of Oudh had estranged them from us. 

Both English officers and their native men disliked the 
work of firing volleys into ill-armed villages. At last the 
rigours of climate and disease left few Santals available for 
resistance. Norman went back to Peshawur and to General 
Reed and Sydney Cotton : the latter was carrying out a 
series of instructive field manoeuvres with his brigade, and 
Norman asked permission of General Reed to attend those 
field days. Sport and social attractions had never taken 
him away from the post of duty : his superior officers noted 
his enthusiastic interest in his profession, and he had not 
long to wait for promotion. The post of second assistant 
to Colonel Chester, adjutant-general, became vacant, and 
Norman was chosen to fill it. 

This entailed a long and weary journey to Calcutta with 
his wife and three small children — and that, too, in the fatal 
month of May. Twenty -nine painful days of travelling by 
road brought them to Raniganj, where Lord Dalhousie's 
new railway conveyed them on. At Calcutta, Norman met 
the new commander-in-chief. General the Hon. George 
Anson, with whom he left Calcutta in September by river 
for Allahabad on a tour of inspection, visiting in turn 
Cawnpur, Aligarh, Lucknow, and Meerut. 

At Meerut, Norman was left behind to work up reports 

234 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

until March 1857, meeting many officers, ladies, and gentle- 
men — all in the highest spirits, unconscious of coming evil, 
— and he was for a time the guest of Captain MacDonald, 
who three months later was killed, together with his wife, 
by his own men rising in mutiny. 

Thence Norman went on to Simla, and learnt of the 
murder of Colonel Finnis at Meerut: but even he had 
no suspicion of what it meant, though he said later 
that he knew the General Service Order of Lord Canning, 
issued in 1856, had much to do with the sepoy unrest. 
This order made them liable to serve across sea — a thing 
they dreaded, for most of them were of high caste, and life 
on board ship offended their caste rules and customs : 
secondly, the rule that sepoys could not be promoted to 
be non-commissioned officers unless they could read and 
write, was now to be enforced : the result of this was that 
many excellent soldiers, possibly of good family, who had 
served twelve or fourteen years, saw themselves deprived of 
all hope of gratifying their worthy ambition. 

Norman tells us that in his old company several men 
who had distinguished themselves greatly in the Punjab 
came to him with tears in their eyes, deploring their cruel 
misfortune. " No, sahib, we are too old to learn to write 
now," they explained. 

It only shows how high authorities should not presume 
to introduce sudden changes without carefully consulting 
the men who, like Norman, Daly, and Hodson, had studied 
intimately the minds of the Indian. While Norman was 
at Simla, it being Sunday, 10th May, as the residents were 
quietly going to church, a native mendicant outraged their 
feelings by presenting himself quite naked — a form of 
insult. 

Other signs and symptoms of discontent followed : then 
on 12th May an officer rode in from Ambala, where the 
telegraph line ended, bringing a copy of the message 
received from Delhi by Sir Henry Barnard. It was dated 
11th May, from the signaller, W. Brendish, at Delhi, to 

235 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

the signaller at Ambala, and was repeated thence to all 
stations. 

" We must leave office : all the bungalows are burning 
down by the sepoys of Meerut : they came in this morning : 
we are off : don't call to-day : Mr. C. Todd is dead, I think. 
He went out this morning and has not returned yet : we 
heard that nine Europeans are killed : good-bye."" 

This was a terrible and startling message to receive : 
the scales now fell from the eyes of the blind, and Norman 
had plenty to do arranging for the departure of regiments. 
We may explain that Todd was the telegraph master at 
Delhi, who had gone out to repair a wire : it may be 
remembered that the Meerut mutineers met a European 
on the bridge of Delhi and killed him. Taking a hasty 
leave of his wife and family, Norman left Simla with 
Colonel Chester for Ambala. 

From Ambala he wrote to his wife on 16th May, saying 
he was overwhelmed with work, and had only ladies to 
copy orders and dispatches : no horses or carts or dhoolie- 
bearers. Later he tells her that many Europeans were 
butchered in Delhi Palace. "Providence has tried us 
sorely, but with God's aid there is not the slightest cause 
for despondency." Already many men had died of cholera ; 
amongst them General Anson on 27th May. Norman felt 
some sharp twinges, but a little brandy and laudanum and 
a sharp walk set him right. 

On 7th June, Wilson's force from Meerut joined Reid's 
Gurkhas and the Ambala troops at Alipur. "The 60th 
Rifles came swinging along after their sixteen-mile march 
singing splendidly in chorus." Norman was with Colonel 
Chester at Badli-ki-Serai when he was killed as he sat 
on horseback upon a mound 800 yards from the enemy's 
guns : only that morning as they rode along together the 
colonel had been expressing his delight at soon meeting 
the mutineers. " He was in the act of replying to a 
remark I had made when a cannon-shot struck him, and 
passing through his horse they both sank to the ground." 

2S6 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

We will not weary the reader by going over again the 
details of the siege, but a few points made in Norman''s 
letters or journal will fill up the picture and make it more 
easy to realise. 

He states that nearly every dead sepoy was found to 
have about him a number of gold mohurs (seventeen rupees 
each) : one rifleman gained eighty gold mohurs (,^136) in 
this way : for so many treasuries had been plundered and 
the proceeds had been divided amongst the mutineers. 

When the besiegers knew that 300 heavy guns were 
mounted on the walls and bastions of Delhi, and that the 
mutineers outnumbered them ten times or more, they talked 
less of making an immediate assault. Abbot's famous 
gunners, too, were in Delhi after 1 7th June with the guns on 
which was engraven the mural crown ordered by Lord 
Ellenborough for their great glory won in the holding of 
Jellalabad. Yet people at home soon began to wonder why 
our forces did not retake Delhi. No one realised then that 
the full strength of the Mutiny had been drawn to Delhi, 
and that our forces were decimated by illness. 

On 18th June, Norman heard of the death of an officer 
at a distance whom he: much liked. As usual, this officer 
trusted his men too much. He with his wife and some 
officers had escaped from Shahjahanpur ; when a mutiny 
broke out there on 31st May during time of service in church, 
they were all shot by their escort a few days later, men and 
women together while kneeling in prayer. 

Norman knew how his friend had trusted and loved 
many of his men, and how many of the sepoys of the S5th 
Native Infantry loved their leader : it seemed to him in- 
comprehensible, and only to be explained by religious 
madness. 

Another friend whose loss he deplored was Lieutenant 
Alexander of the 3rd Native Infantry, who had only been 
in camp on the Ridge a few days. He was just a boy, of 
charming manners and appearance, and had come with a 
company of his regiment, escorting a long train of carts 

237 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

laden with ordnance stores. On reaching camp after his 
hot march of 200 miles the poor boy had to be told that 
his regiment had mutinied and his company must be 
disarmed. 

All the bright, enthusiastic delight in soldiering left 
him, and he wandered from point to point disconsolately. 
Norman often met him and tried to cheer him and make 
him see the rosier side of things ; but his heart was broken, 
and he sought danger for its own sake. 

One afternoon Alexander's native soubhadar came in 
tears to Norman's tent : " I was with my officer, sahib ; a 
waggon blew up and I see him no more. I must find him, 
sahib ; may I take unarmed sepoys to search for my sahib ? "" 
The poor fellow could scarce speak for sorrow. Norman 
gave him leave. 

Later, when Norman had lain down to sleep, the soub- 
hadar came back saying, " We have found his body — no 
life, sahib — master gone ! " 

Utterly broken down was the faithful Indian as he told 
his tale ; since his love for his sahib was as that of Jonathan 
for David. 

It is only right to remember the splendid instances of 
good faith and devotion in the sepoy when we are moved 
to anger by atrocities. " How easy it is for people at a 
distance to criticise," wrote Norman to his wife in July. 
" No one who is not here knows the difficulties that beset 
this force. To my mind no troops have ever deserved 
better of their country, or could be more ready and willing 
for any enterprise." 

Even Lady Canning, who might have known more than 
others, wrote in August : " At Delhi they do nothing but 
repel attacks ; why they dread to assault we cannot under- 
stand." 

Perhaps one reason why we did not assault was the 
ominous fact that Delhi was armed with our best guns and 
30,000 well-drilled soldiers, while the men on the Ridge 
numbered 3700, many being sick or wounded ; and already, 

238 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

in July, the 18-pounder ammunition was almost expended ! 
Fortunately these brave, patient besiegers knew not at the 
time what severe criticism was being levelled at them by 
ignorance dwelling in security. Amongst the casualties 
we find one wound at least which proved wholesome. 

Blair of the Fusiliers was shot while carrying an armful 
of ammunition to his men. It seemed a bad case : " He can 
hardly survive," said the surgeon. But the bullet had 
tapped an abscess in Blair's liver, and so prolonged his life, 
for he did not die until 1907 ! 

Packe of the 4th Sikh Infantry was shot in the ankle 
while kneeling behind a stone breastwork, the enemy being 
in front. That looked suspicious. A few days after, Hodson 
came to Norman's tent with a sepoy of the Guides and said — 

"I say, Norman, I should like you to hear what my 
sepoy has to say." 

The sepoy then declared that in a skirmish in the 
suburbs he had seen men of the 4th Sikhs hang back and 
fire at the backs of their officers. 

" What ! Sikhs do so treacherous a deed ? " 

" No, sahib, no ! Many Hindustanis hiding in this 
regiment." 

The man was cross-examined and stuck to his story: 
also the adjutant had been shot through the back. 

In the end, the Hindustanis, a fourth of the regiment, 
were disarmed and sent out of camp. 

In July, Chamberlain's wound threw upon Norman again 
the duties of adjutant-general : the death of General Sir H. 
Barnard by cholera would have led to Chamberlain being 
commander, had he not been laid up. 

On the afternoon of 17th July a native from Benares 
was brought to Norman's hut : he was allowed to ramble on 
about Allahabad and Benares, when Norman, anxious to 
know how soon General Sir Hugh Wheeler could come to 
their relief at Delhi, lightly asked the men, " What news 
from Cawnpur?" 

^'Cawnpur, sahib? you have not heard that.?" Then 

S39 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

dropping his voice, he murmured, " Every white man, woman, 
and child has been put to death." 

" A thrill of horror passed over me," writes Norman, 
" for his bearing and tone convinced me that what he said 
was true." 

Norman took the native to Colonel Becher and they 
examined his report ; then to the civil commissioner, Mr. 
Greathed : but for many days they dared not let the troops 
know the horrors of what had happened. 

An amusing incident befell on 18th July, when, after 
driving some sepoys from cover on the right flank, a 
prisoner was brought in. 

" It's a woman, sir," said the sergeant of the 60th ; " so 
we did not kill her." 

A very masculine dame she looked, and her language 
was Indian Billingsgate of a virulent type. The more the 
riflemen laughed, the fiercer the beldame grew in her 
denunciations. 

Some officers came round to see her ; one, tall and 
well-built, suddenly attracted her attention : her manner 
changed and she whispered coyly, " A very nice man to 
look at ! never saw such kind eyes before ! if he likes me 
well enough, I don't mind marrying him." 

" It need hardly be said that the officer in question had 
to endure a considerable amount of chaff"" : but history 
does not say what became of the relenting prisoner. 

On 18th August a Mrs. Leeson escaped from the city : 
she had been severely wounded on 10th May ; the bullet 
passed through her child whom she held in her arms, and 
then through herself. Both her other children had their 
throats cut in her presence. A citizen of Delhi out of pity 
concealed her, had her wound cured and helped her to escape. 

In describing to his wife the work of constructing the 
batteries in September, Norman writes : " You may judge of 
its magnitude when I mention that 1000 camel-loads of 
fascines and material had to be taken down, besides 100 
camel-loads of powder, shot, and shell : all available men 

^40 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

took part in the construction : on the 18th, 300 Europeans 
and 100 natives went on duty ; and two days later no fewer 
than 800 Europeans and 400 natives with twenty-four 
oificers were engaged on the work. 

After the capture of the walls and gates, Roberts and 
Norman went exploring in the streets and had some narrow 
shaves from stray bullets : the sepoys wore net purses 
round their waists under their clothes, and often had 
them full of looted gold. In one street Norman found a 
European soldier and a Punjabi struggling together over one 
of these purses torn from a dead sepoy. Neither of them 
would let go first, and Norman was obliged to beat them 
with all his force on the knuckles with the hilt of his sword. 

The purse was full of rupees, and as their comrades 
stood round grinning, Norman said, " I shall distribute the 
rupees amongst you all ; for these others have done good 
service while you have been intent on loot.'' So, he dealt 
them out one by one all round like a pack of cards, keeping 
for himself the mutineer's medal for service in the Punjab. 

Johnson, Stewart, Roberts and Norman, friends in- 
separable at this time, were with Taylor pushing on from 
house to house. 

Edwin Johnson was a very clever officer, with a caustic 
wit and amusing. Stewart had come to the Ridge with 
Ford from Agra, having volunteered to carry dispatches : 
it was a most perilous and adventurous journey and won 
him great renown. He died a Field-Marshal. 

In passing from house to house Roberts says they found 
curious things, such as magic lanterns, musical boxes, and 
half-starved, deserted wives. 

On 21st September, headquarters were removed to the 
palace, and the officers established their mess and sleeping 
cots in the famous Diwan-i-Am, or Hall of Audience. But 
the joy of victory was almost drowned in the lamentations 
for the slain. Three friends Norman mourned for in especial : 
Lieutenant Salkeld, hero of the Kashmir gate, was now 
rapidly sinking : the general had sent his aide-de-camp to 
Q 241 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

tell him he would receive the Victoria Cross ; but he could 
only smile faintly as he drifted away. John Nicholson 
was found by Norman unconscious, with heaving chest 
and a vacant, distressed look in his eyes. 

Charles Nicholson, Norman's dearest friend, had spent 
the last week in command of Coke's Rifles, day and night 
on constant duty, and now lay with a smashed arm. " I 
am not ashamed to say that when we parted, as we 
expected, for the last time, we exchanged a loving kiss." 
Another friend was Charles Reid, the gallant holder of 
Hindu Rao's house during ninety-nine days of attack. 

In speaking of Hodson and the shooting of the princes, 
Norman writes : " I don't believe in ' the threatening 
crowd ' : they were mostly terrified townspeople. ... I 
believe Hodson shot them because he believed they deserved 
death ; and was apprehensive, if he brought them in alive, 
their lives might be spared. In doing this he did what I 
think was in the highest degree wrong. ... I am bound 
to say, however, that many officers thought he did right, 
and had displayed commendable vigour and resolution." 

We ought not to leave Delhi and its brave besiegers 
without once more bearing testimony to the heroic deeds 
of Colonel H. Tombs, R.A., V.C., whom one and all admired 
for his wonderful handling of his battery, as well as for his 
valiant exploits. 

Lord Roberts writes : " As a cool, bold leader of men 
Tombs was unsurpassed : no fire, however hot, and no crisis, 
however unexpected, could take him by surprise ; he grasped 
the situation in a moment and issued his orders without 
hesitation, inspiring all ranks with confidence in his powers. 
He was somewhat of a martinet, and was more feared than 
liked by his men until they realised what a grand leader 
he was, when they gave him their entire confidence, and 
were ready to follow him anywhere." 

Delhi had been taken after tremendous fighting, suffering 
from wounds and disease, months of anxiety, depression and 
hope deferred. For some time there was a feeling of sore- 

242 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

ness amongst the officers and men left alive to tell the tale ; 
" from Calcutta not one word of thanks or encouragement 
has ever been vouchsafed to us," writes Norman. However, 
Norman was attached to Greathed's column as a staff 
officer on his way to report himself to the commander- 
in-chief, and marched away from the smells and dust of 
" the accursed city " on 24th September. 

The transport animals had been worn out at Delhi, and 
the men in rags and ill-fed were very prone to sickness. 
But Lucknow called for them, and all ranks, native and 
European, pressed forward willingly. 

As they travelled through townlets and villages they 
noticed that trade had ceased; d^k-bungalows, police- 
stations, telegraph wires were all destroyed : the people, 
believing that the English rule was over, had begun to 
fortify their villages against men of their own race — as 
though justice had fled the earth. 

It has been mentioned before how Agra had called for 
help, and the column had gone to assist them, and had 
been surprised by the enemy owing to misleading informa- 
tion given by the Agra authorities. Sixty or seventy of our 
force were killed and wounded, while the country for miles 
was strewn with dead sepoys. Norman speaks bitterly of 
" the imbecility of these wretched Agra people." 

On 21st October, as Norman was riding by the side of 
Hope Grant, who had relieved Greathed of the command 
of the column, the brigadier's horse lashed out and struck 
Norman on the shin bone : he was thus compelled to con- 
tinue his journey to Lucknow in a litter. A few words may 
be necessary to explain the events which had taken place at 
Lucknow while the siege of Delhi was being conducted. 

On 30th June, Sir Henry Lawrence retired to the 
Residency on the bank of the Gumti after a repulse at 
Chinhat. The little garrison of under 2000, including 163 
civilians, now stood at bay against a city of 300,000 
inhabitants. 

On 2nd July, Sir Henry died of his wounds and Colonel 

248 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

luglis took command ; death by shot and shell and fell 
disease and weariness reduced their numbers to 577 
Europeans and 402 sepoys, until on 25th September, 
Havelock, with Outram serving under him, brought the 
first relief. 

But Havelock's force had suffered so much that they 
could not carry away the sixty-one ladies and forty-three 
children : all Havelock could do was to leave 200 men 
under Outram to strengthen the garrison ; he then posted 
the sick and wounded under Maclntyre at the Alumbagh : 
here they suffered great hardships and many died of 
starvation. 

Sir Colin Campbell, the new commander-in-chief, left 
Calcutta on 27th October, and made forced marches to 
Lucknow, joining the Delhi column on the way early in 
November. 

Norman was warmly welcomed by Sir Colin and General 
Mansfield, the chief of the staff: he now resumed his 
duties in the adjutant-generaFs department. 

One morning, as he left Sir Colin's tent before daybreak, 
Norman was jostled by a native : angrily he ordered the 
fellow in Hindostani to stand away from the entrance at 
his peril. To his surprise the native replied with a touch 
of Irish brogue : " I am one of the garrison of Lucknow — 
Kavanagh — I have come out of the Residency with letters 
for the commander-in-chief." 

One can imagine the changed tone in which Norman 
replied : " Come in ! come in ! excuse my mistake. You 
are so well disguised, I took you for a native — and the 
old man too — you are welcome indeed ! " 

Yes — a dangerous journey these two men had successfully 
completed through the teeming city and the enemy's 
lines : for this exploit Kavanagh won the Victoria Cross. 
Kavanagh brought something more important than letters : 
he had been for some years employed in the office of the 
chief commissioner of Oudh, and knew the streets and by- 
lanes of Lucknow : he brought a map of the city and its 

244 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

surroundings and pointed out to Sir Colin the best way of 
reaching the Residency. 

On 11th November, Sir Colin reviewed his force of 5000 
men with 26 guns on the plain about five miles in front of the 
Alumbagh, and especially commended the Delhi column. 

When the Sikh regiments first saw the Highlanders, 
"bonnets and plumes and a'," they could hardly be got 
past them, so great was their admiration : and when they 
heard the bagpipes, it reminded them of the Afridi's music 
— " the best music we ever heard," was their verdict. 

Not less interesting to all were the stalwart tars of the 
Naval Brigade under Captain William Peel with S4- 
pounder guns drawn by bullocks : the native drivers were 
vastly perplexed when ordered to go " starboard." 

The 93rd, with feather bonnets and dark waving plumes, 
formed the extreme left of the line, and as the old chief, 
commencing with the right, halted and addressed a short 
speech to each corps, he slowly drew near his old regiment, 
1000 strong; some 700 of them wore the Crimean medal 
on their breasts. 

Forbes-Mitchell, who was in the 93rd, says : " The men 
remarked among themselves that none of the other corps 
had given him a single cheer, but had taken what he. said 
in solemn silence. At last he approached us; we were 
called to attention, and formed close column, so that every 
man might hear what was said. When Sir Colin rode up, 
he appeared to have a worn and haggard expression on his 
face ; but he was received with such a cheer, or rather shout 
of welcome, as made the echoes ring from the neighbouring 
woods. His wrinkled brow at once became smooth, and 
his wearied features broke into a smile, as he acknowledged 
the cheer with a hearty salute."^ 

Sir Colin then spoke of the dangers they had encountered 
in the Crimea ; told them they had to rescue women and 
children from a fate worse than death : they must come to 
close quarters and use the bayonet. 

^ Reminiscences of the Mutiny (Macmillan & Co.). 

245 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

" Ninety- third ! " he ended, " you are my own lads : I rely 
on you to do the work."" 

A voice from the ranks called out : " Ay, ay. Sir Colin , 
ye ken us and we ken you ; we'll bring the women and 
children out o' Lucknow or dee wi' you in the attempt ! " 
Thereat the whole line burst into another ringing cheer. 

When at length the Alumbagh was reached, the sick 
and some surplus stores were left in it, to be protected 
by the 75th Foot. Then they marched on to storm the 
Secundrabagh, when nearly every staff officer was wounded. 
" My horse was hit in three places in a charge of the 93rd 
led by Sir Colin,"" writes Norman, who himself seemed to 
have a charmed life. 

The men at this time had no baggage or tents, and the 
cold at nights was terrible. 

On 14th November, the Dilkusha, or garden house of 
the King of Oudh, was reached by a wide circuit made 
through difficult ground — Kavanagh doubtless showing the 
way. Havelock had threaded his way through the densest 
part of the city and lost many men in street fighting. 

They reached the walls of the King's Park as the sun 
was rising : the infantry halted until a breach was made in 
the walls. 

The men lay down in a field of carrots, and began eating 
them raw. The Park swarmed with deer, black buck and 
spotted : but they had not time to enjoy the beauties of 
nature, for 9-pounder shot came bowling along as they 
formed into line and cut down several men. 

Old Colonel Leith-Hay called out, " Keep steady, men : 
close up the ranks." 

But MacBean, the adjutant, as he stood behind the 
line, said in an undertone : " Don't mind the colonel : open 
out and let the round-shot go through — and watch the 
shot." 

Then Roberts led the artillery to the front, and took 
the guns of the enemy in the flank : whereupon the sepoys 
bolted downhill to the Martiniere. 

246 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

There the sailors quickly threw up a battery in front of 
their guns and escaped with trifling loss owing to their 
good use of the spade : their cheery ways amused and gave 
heart to the rest, for they were full of fun and good temper. 
The natives described the sailors as " little men, four feet 
in the beam ; always laughing and dragging about their 
own guns." 

When the Martiniere was carried by brilliant fighting, 
in which lieutenant Watson distinguished himself, Norman 
and Sir Colin mounted to the top of the college, when 
Kavanagh pointed out the rebels' main positions. A sema- 
phore was erected and communications established with the 
Residency. 

On 16th November the advance began at 9 a.m. : 
every man carried his greatcoat and food for three days. 
First they crossed the canal and passed through a village on 
their way to attack the Secundrabagh. 

This was a high-walled enclosure of strong masonry, 
loopholed all round, and flanked by circular bastions ; in 
the centre was a two-storeyed house from which a strong 
fire was kept up. 

Here Sir Colin was struck on the thigh by a bullet, 
Blunt thrown to the ground under his dying horse, and 
Norman's horse was twice hit. After an hour and a half 
of fierce attack a hole was found big enough to let the 93rd 
and 4th Punjabis storm through in close rivalry. 

As Norman was approaching the gateway over heaps of 
dead, he received a violent blow on the head : it was not a 
bullet this time, but the body of a dying rebel thrown at 
him from above I 

Norman and Roberts then entered the house and found 
the floors strewn four feet deep with the bodies of the dead 
and dying. There was no doubt that the sepoys had on 
their side fought desperately for victory. 

Norman writes : " My horse reared on receiving his 
second blow, and just then a bullet struck him in the side, but 
I managed to ride him for half an hour longer : the troops 

247 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

lay down in the Park, after capturing the Shah Nujeef, a 
strong domed mosque with a walled garden : and a nice 
cold night we had of it with a soaking dew." 

But Norman in his modesty did not tell his wife how, 
when a battalion recoiled and was thrown into disorder, 
he had ridden amongst the men, rallied them and led them 
again to the attack. 

Sir Colin had been sitting in the saddle with knit brows, 
anxious for the result of the evening's work ; but no sooner 
did he hear the yell of his pet Highlanders than all trace 
of care vanished : he turned to his bivouac in the open air 
and slept as his men did, with his staff around him. 

The Secundrabagh was indeed a fierce retaliation for 
Cawnpur : it is said that 3000 dead sepoys, all slain by the 
bayonet, there met their fate. Forbes- Mitchell tells us the 
93rd were ordered to attack with bayonets in groups of threes : 
the sepoys, after firing their muskets, hurled them like 
javelins, bayonets first, and then drawing their tulwars, 
which were as keen as razors, they slashed in blind fury, 
shouting Deen ! Deen ! (the Faith !) 

With regard to Adjutant MacBean's advice, to let the 
balls go through : Sir Colin, during the attack on the 
Secundrabagh, kept turning round, when a man was hit as 
they sheltered behind a low mud wall, and cried, " Lie down, 
93rd, lie down ! Every man of you is worth his weight 
in gold to England to-day." 

We do not often remember this in the selfish hours of 
peace ! We let men fight for us, and leave them after all 
to the degradation of the workhouse. As the men lay 
down on the cold ground to get rest and sleep, they plainly 
heard the pipers of the 78th playing inside the Residency as 
a welcome to cheer their rescuers on their perilous way. 

On 17th November, Norman took a last look at the 
interior of the tomb of the Shah Nujeef: to his surprise 
he saw that the glass ornaments had been broken, and the 
beautiful marble pavement cracked. Presently he met a 
man of the Naval Brigade with a 24-pounder shot. 

248 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

" Yes, sir, it's me did it all ! I couldna stand anv of 
their idolatry." 

It was not until the afternoon of the 18th that the 
mess-house was taken, as Sir Colin had to secure his left 
from attack : after this the Moti Mahal was taken ; they 
were now near the English position, and by knocking a 
hole in the wall communications were opened, though the 
space between was exposed to the enemies' fire. 

Thus, when Sir J. Outram and Sir H. Havelock crossed 
this zone to confer with Sir Colin, three of their staff 
were wounded. 

It was a critical time and the problem set was difficult : 
at Cawnpur the Gwalior army was threatening to overcome 
Windham and his troops : there must be no delay in 
returning to help Windham. But Lucknow swarmed with 
rebels and could not be taken in a short time. 

Sir Colin decided to withdraw the troops and the 
1500 women and children from the Residency, and leave 
Outram with 4000 men to hold the Alumbagh. 

From 19th to 22nd November the women and children 
were withdrawn under cover of darkness, the rebels being 
quite ignorant of the movement, as Peel's guns kept up 
a " command performance " to give the rebels something 
to do and to think about. Norman saw Havelock before 
he left the Residency. He was lying on his bed in his 
blue uniform coat, very weak, suffering from dysentery, and 
" on the point to die." 

The troops from the Residency were told to stream 
noiselessly away without military formation to the 
Martiniere. Sir Colin's men, under the Hon. Adrian Hope, 
lined the road, silent as spectres. 

When all had passed, Sir Colin lay down to sleep by 
a fire which the Highlanders had piled up for him. The 
enemy were so skilfully deceived they they fired on the 
Residency long after it had been abandoned. 

On the 24th, our men marched to the Alumbagh, and 
there Sir Colin left his sick and v, ounded and large stores. 

249 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

It was on this morning that the heroic Havelock 
breathed his last : happily he had lived long enough to 
know that his countrymen and women were rescued, and 
his end was peace : his earthly remains were buried in a 
grave in the Alumbagh. 

On the morning of the S7th, Sir Colin started for 
Cawnpur with soldiers worn out by fighting and watching, 
but cheerily bent on saving their comrades. The train 
of men extended along ten miles of road, three abreast : they 
soon heard the distant sound of guns thirty miles away, 
and an order was given that they must reach the bridge 
of boats at Cawnpur on the next day. 

It was 11 p.m. when they reached Bunnee Bridge, 17 
miles from Lucknow : here the soldiers halted till daylight 
of the 28th November : but the women and children had 
started under guard at S a.m. 

About five miles farther on, Sir Colin, attended by 
Norman and his staff, ordered the 93rd to form up ; when 
he took them into his confidence as usual. He told them 
that General Windham had been attacked by the Nana 
and the Gwalior contingent, and had been forced to retire 
within the fort. 

If the bridge of boats were cut, it would be a serious 
position for the British : 50,000 enemies in the rear ; a 
river and 40,000 well-armed men in front, and all 
the sick and women to guard ! " So, 93rd," said the 
old chief with emotion, " I don't ask you to undertake 
this forced march, in your present tired condition, without 
good reason. We must reach Cawnpur to-night at all 
costs." 

"All right. Sir Colin, well do it,"" was the resolute reply. 

So, on they went, footsore and weary, but roused by the 
tonic of a good cannonade in front. The wounded, says 
Norman, were nearly jolted to death in hackeries, and 
the women in their strange surroundings looked frightened 
and wide-eyed. 

About noon on the 25th, a native sprang out of the 

250 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

long grass and held out a letter : it was written in Greek 
characters to Sir Colin, or any officer commanding troops, 
and asked for prompt succour. Sir Colin ordered Roberts 
to ride forward and see how they sped at Cawnpur : at 
the bridge-head an excited officer met him with the remark, 
" We are at our last gasp ! " " All right ! " answered 
Roberts, " we are just here ! " 

He rode across the bridge of boats under fire and 
entered the fort ; many came crowding round to ask the 
news. General Windham he found cool and collected : 
Captain Mowbray Thomson had kept 4000 coolies daily 
employed on the defences from dawn till dark, and the 
fortifications were not to be despised. There was to be 
no second Cawnpur Massacre ! 

But the force that went to relieve Lucknow had left 
all their spare kit and 500 tents, harness, etc., in Cawnpur : 
all this the rebels had seized and were burning on the 
bank of the Ganges. It was the first sight that greeted 
the eyes of the relieving force : they had not changed 
their clothes since the 10th, and the sight did not soothe 
their feelings. 

Sir Colin, irritable and anxious, could not wait for 
Roberts to return. Taking Norman with him and a few 
more he rode to the bridge-head. The same officer made 
unfortunately the same remark he had made to Roberts. 
" Sir Colin, we are at our last gasp ! " 

" D — n you, sir; how dare you say such a thing to me ! " 

The poor officer fell back in dismay ; the chief and his 
staff rode over the swaying bridge and entered the fort. 

At once some of the Rifle Brigade recognised Sir Colin, 
and their deafening cheers soon showed what they thought 
of the value of his presence amongst them. 

Next day Sir Colin transferred his headquarters across 
the river: gradually the men marched across, and on the 
night of 3rd December the women and children with 
500 sick and wounded were secretly sent off to Allahabad. 

On the 6th, news came by telegraph that the party 

251 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN - 

had arrived at the railway station and would soon be safe 
within the fortress of Allahabad. 

It was not until the reception of this news that Sir 
Colin ordered an advance against the rebels : Norman 
in this fighting had several fortunate escapes, while Sir 
Colin and General Grant were both hit by musket-balls. 

Norman, beside his work in the field, had heavy duties 
to perform. A new native army was being raised, and the 
Deputy Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army had much 
to do in instructing and organising. " I sometimes com- 
plained that the work almost killed me," he writes. 

What Norman had been to General Wilson at Delhi he 
now proved to be to Sir Colin Campbell. " Norman is the 
life and soul of the Force,"" wrote Edwin Johnson at Delhi. 
Blunt, writing from Cawnpur, says : " Old Norman is the 
same as ever, only fighting fattens him. He is all in all 
to Sir Colin, and is worth his weight in gold." 

In March 1858, our army once more set out for 
Lucknow : the Dilkusha Palace was taken, and the 
Martiniere attacked and taken on the 9th. Here Peel, 
K.C.B., was wounded and laid up for the rest of the siege. 
Outram was co-operating successfully and by the evening 
of the 10th the enemy's first line of defence was carried. 
The entrenchments along the canal were stupendous, and 
in the rear every building was strongly entrenched and 
loopholed. 

On the 11th March, Norman visited Outram's camp 
and the naval battery : he found Outram attempting to 
secure the bridges which spanned the Goomtee : but he 
had to hurry back to headquarters to receive the Prime 
Minister of Nepaul, Maharaja Jang Bahadur, The 
interview took place with an accompaniment of musketry 
and artillery : before it was over news came that Adrian 
Hope had captured the Begum's Palace. Norman hurried 
off to this — "the sternest struggle in the siege." 

The fight, in which the 93rd, the 4th Punjab Rifles and 
the Gurkhas had played so heroic a part, had raged for 

252 



THE ORGANISER OF VICTORY 

two hours from court to court and from room to room ; 
while the pipe-major, John M'Leod, walked about playing 
the pipes as calmly as if he had been at a mess-dinner. 

It was in this attack that Hodson, the Prince of Scouts, 
was killed. Of him Norman writes : " Though not without 
serious faults, he was a most accomplished and gallant 
officer, and as a leader of irregulars in our time probably 
unsurpassed "" : and again, " Poor Hodson was buried last 
night : it was quite dark, a lantern being held up to enable 
the chaplain to read the service." 

On the 17th, Norman ascended one of the minarets of 
the Imambara with Hope Johnstone, and became the 
target for various bullets. He was able to inform the 
chief that the Musabagh must be attacked. On this 
day Mrs. Orr and Miss Jackson were rescued by Captain 
M'Neil and Lieutenant Boyle : these ladies had been in 
prison since the previous May. On 21st March, the city 
of Lucknow was in our hands — the rebel loss being about 
4000, the British under 800. 

After the siege still more work for Norman, headaches 
and low fever ! His friends were scattered — Roberts to 
England, Hugh Gough to the hills, Watson to the Punjab, 
Probyn invalided. 

Then came the list of Delhi honours ; but Norman's 
name was not there ! Wilson a K.C.B., Daly a C.B., 
Norman apparently forgotten. He felt it keenly, not 
knowing the reason, and wrote to his wife : '* I am not 
included, though every A.D.C. who was a captain is a 
brevet-major. Having been in nearly eighty actions and 
skirmishes, it seems odd that I cannot be rewarded, even 
though head of the adjutant-generaFs department in a 
large army." 

However, Sir Colin showed him in his dispatch of 
22nd March these words : " I must draw very particular 
attention to the services of Major Norman, who has pei'- 
formed the very onerous duty of adjutant-general of the 
army in the field throughout the campaign." 

253 



SIR HENRY WYLIE NORMAN 

It was not that the War Office had forgotten him : only 
they had bound themselves by rules they dared not break : 
Norman was too young to be rewarded ! 

At last the Gazette gave him the local rank of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel in the East Indies and a C.B. 

We cannot follow him further. After the Rohilkhand 
campaign, Norman became a military secretary at the 
Horse Guards, a member of the Viceroy's council, governor 
of Jamaica, governor of Queensland, governor of Chelsea, 
Field-Marshal. 

Lord Roberts, in estimating his character, notes three 
great qualities : (1) A natural liking and aptitude for work ; 
sport and games had no temptations for him. (2) An extra- 
ordinary memory : he seemed to know the Army List by 
heart ; he had a wide knowledge of military history. (3) 
He possessed sound soldierly instincts, was always on the 
spot, courted danger, yet was cool and brave always : he 
was very cheerful, and apt to see the bright side of things. 
He died on 26th October 1904. 

From a Memoir of Sir H. W. Norman^ by kind permission of 
Sir W. Lee- Warner, G.C.S.I., and Messrs. Smith & Elder. 



254 



CHAPTER XII 

THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

"1^X0 memorial of the heroes of the Indian Mutiny 
I \ would be complete which did not give some account 
of the men, women and children who suffered, 
fought or died at Cawnpur. 

Those of them who may not be designated heroes were 
veritable martyrs. Cawnpur lies on the right bank of the 
Ganges, 270 miles south-east from Delhi, 684 from 
Calcutta by land, 954 by water; from Allahabad, some 
120 miles : it is the principal town in the Doab, which lies 
between the Ganges and the Jumna. 

The cantonments, quite distinct from the native city, 
were extended along the bank of the river six miles from 
north-west to south-east and contained an area of about 
ten square miles. Here hundreds of little white bungalows, 
the homes of the officers and their families, stood in their 
three-acre compounds or gardens, each surrounded by a 
low and crumbling mound and ditch, or hedge of prickly 
pear. 

Forest trees abounded and gave a pleasant shade — 
each regiment had its own bazaar, whether the men lived 
in the barracks or under canvas. On higher ground stood 
the church and assembly rooms ; farther on was the theatre 
for amateur performances, and a cafe. 

In the officers' gardens vegetables of all kinds thrived, 
while peaches and melons, limes, oranges and custard apples 
formed a healthy addition to the diet. In summer, Cawnpur 
is one of the hottest stations in India ; in winter, water will 
freeze in shallow pans if left out at night. 

255 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

Boating on the river, horse-racing, polo and billiards 
were the chief amusements. In the dry season the Ganges 
is about five hundred yards wide, but in the rains it swells 
to more than a mile across : it is navigable for boats of light 
draught down to the sea, or one thousand miles : while up- 
stream one can travel by boat for three hundred miles. 

The ghaut, or landing-place, is usually the spot where 
strange creatures congregate — traders, hucksters, fakirs, 
beggars of all kinds. 

A bridge of boats constructed by the Government was 
open to all who wished to pass over into, or from, the 
province of Oudh : a small toll being charged for the up- 
keep. Hundreds of vessels with thatched roofs were moored 
near the shore, looking like a swaying village, while country 
boats like stacks adrift were constantly being urged up or 
down by their smoking and singing rowers. 

The native city, closely packed in teeming huts and 
houses, contained sixty thousand inhabitants, having only 
one wide street or boulevard, called the Chandnee Choke, or 
Silver Street. This name dates from the time when there 
were no banks, and natives who possessed capital were fain 
to convert it into fantastic belts and rings, and hang their 
wealth for security about the ears and ankles of their 
families : this street abounds in the shops of silversmiths. 
The city swarmed with cut-throats escaped from smaller 
cities after they had murdered and robbed some industrious 
and saving countryman. 

Of course the city gaol was tolerably full of the worst 
specimens of humanity, poisoners and adepts in the fine art 
of strangling and stabbing. We must now give a short 
account of the two men who are notorious for having urged 
the mutineers to make war upon our women and children. 
Nana Sahib, as he is usually called, was the adopted son of 
Bajee Rao, who had been Peishwa of Poonah, and the last 
of the Mahratta kings. 

The Government at Calcutta had dethroned the Peishwa 
for his repeated acts of treachery, confiscated his lands and 

^56 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

made him live at Bithoor, twelve miles up river from 
Cawnpur. Here he resided in princely state near the banks 
of the sacred Ganges, having from the Company an annuity 
of ^80,000 \Yherewith to supply himself with luxuries and 
keep contented his host of splendid retainers. 

But the ex-Peishwa had no son : so, according to Hindoo 
custom, he adopted Seereek Dhoondu Punth, or " Nana " 
(grandson) for short. 

The old man died in 1851 : his heir, the Nana, at once 
presented a claim upon the East India Company for a con- 
tinuance of the pension allowed to the late Peishwa. Lord 
Dalhousie curtly refused it ; but the Nana still came into 
possession of the old man''s savings, and his wealth was very 
conspicuous amongst the richest Indian landowners. His 
palace was furnished expensively, his stables contained well- 
bred Arabs, elephants and camels ; his ladies were tricked 
out with costly jewels ; his little army, horse and foot, paid 
four rupees each man a month, eked out their pittance by 
plundering peasants or ryots and extorting blackmail from 
the merchants of Cawnpur. 

Yet the Nana never forgot, or forgave. Lord Dalhousie's 
stern denial of his claim. He sent his vakeel, or agent, to 
London in 1854 to press his demand in Leadenhall Street. 
This man was Azimoolah Khan, a clever, witty and good- 
looking young Indian. 

It is said he had once been a kitmutgar, or butler, in 
the house of an Anglo-Indian : here he learnt to speak 
English and French fluently. Then he became a teacher in a 
Government school at Cawnpur, and later became a trusted 
adviser of the Nana. 

This man, then, went to London with plenty of money, 
posed as a prince, was accepted as one of the lions of the 
season, and made influential friends of both sexes. However, 
he could not induce the Company to grant his master the 
pension : yet he took home important news, for he passed 
through Constantinople just when our fortunes in the 
Crimean War were at the lowest ebb : he was thus able to 
R 257 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

tell his Bithoor master that the power of England was 
shattered : now was the time for revolt ! 

The Nana Sahib was at this time about thirty-six years 
old, very corpulent, sallow, clean shaven, as all Mahrattas 
are : he treated the English officers with generous hospi- 
tality, for he never allowed any suspicion of his loyalty to 
arise from look or word or deed. No doubt Azimoolah's 
account of the decadence of England was spread abroad in all 
the great cities of India ; and this, together with the anni- 
versary of Plassey, decided the time of revolt. 

Azimoolah, the feted prince, was perhaps more cruel and 
bloodthirsty than his master: it was he who ordered the 
massacre of the women and children. 

The Cawnpur garrison in 1857 consisted of about 3000 
sepoys. The Europeans consisted of about 300 fighting men, 
their wives, children and native servants ; 300 half-caste, or 
Eurasian children of the Cawnpur School ; merchants, shop- 
keepers, etc., and other civilians : these amounted in all to 
more than a thousand Europeans. 

Major-General Sir Hugh Wheeler, K.C.B., was in com- 
mand of the Cawnpur division : he had spent more than 
fifty years in India, and was supposed to understand the 
native mind as well as any one. Like most of the old officers, 
he worshipped his sepoys, chatted with them in their own 
language and could not believe they would prove unfaithful. 
He was short and spare, active for his years, and inspired 
confidence. But sinister news from Meerut and Delhi began 
to leak out from the bazaars, and came to the ears of the 
general. 

Sir Hugh had always found the Maharaja of Bithoor, 
or the Nana, full of genial courtesy : he had no reason to 
suspect his loyalty, except that Sir Henry Lawrence had 
misliked the Nana's manner on his late visit to Lucknow. 
He now, at the suggestion of Mr. Hillersden, the resident 
magistrate, asked the Nana to take charge of the treasury 
and the magazine, whilst this temporary unrest was up- 
setting his sepoys. 

258 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

Nana Sahib rode over, attended by his bodyguard, and 
offered to send a force of 200 cavalry, 400 infantry and 
two guns to protect the revenue. 

This was considered exceedingly kind and generous : the 
Nana had even offered to take charge of all the English 
ladies at his palace ; but some of the officers scrupled to go 
so far, and the (apparently) chivalrous offer was not accepted. 
The treasury was distant from the cantonments about 
five miles, and was on the other side of the native city : it 
contained more than a hundred thousand pounds in silver. 
The magazine was well stocked with powder, shot and shell : 
the general felt relieved when these valuable buildings were 
safe under the charge of the polite and gracious Maharaja. 

It was time something was done : for alarming news 
kept coming from Delhi after the 14th of May, and the 
north road was infested with dacoits and liberated convicts ; 
but the sepoys remained quiet and obedient. 

Then there came a visitor to the cantonments who 
frightened all the ladies by her terrible tale of woe. 

This was Mrs. Fraser, the wife of an officer in the 27th 
Native Infantry, who had travelled by dak from the city 
of Delhi. The native driver had taken her up in the 
suburbs of Delhi and brought her safely 9,66 miles through 
a country excited by passion, disturbed by marauders and 
thronged with mutineers on their way to the capital of the 
Moghul. 

Her carriage had been pierced by bullets, but the lady 
had escaped. Poor woman ! she drew a breath of thankful- 
ness as she found herself safe once more and amongst friends 
and loyal sepoys. 

Captain Mowbray Thomson in his Stoiy of Cawnpore 
places this lady in the forefront of the many heroines that 
the perils of the siege called forth to do and dare for the 
sake of the weaker. 

He says : " During the horrors of the siege she won the 
admiration of all our party by her indefatigable attentions 
to the wounded. Neither danger nor fatigue seemed to 

259 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

have power to suspend her ministry of mercy. Even on 
the fatal morning of embarkation, although she had escaped 
to the boats with scarcely any clothing on her, in the 
thickest of the deadly volleys poured upon us from the 
banks, she appeared alike indifferent to danger and to her 
own scanty covering ; while she was entirely occupied in the 
attempt to soothe and relieve the agonised sufferers around 
her, whose wounds scarcely made their condition worse than 
her own. Such rare heroism deserves a far higher tribute 
than this simple record." 

Mrs. Fraser was one of the ladies who were recaptured 
from the boats, and is said to have died of fever in the 
massacre house ; and so she escaped that last awful scene 
arranged by the Nana and Azimoolah. 

As day followed day, so evidence accumulated that the 
sepoys at Cawnpur would follow the example of their com- 
rades elsewhere. 

The sergeant-major's wife of the 53rd, an Eurasian, was 
accosted by a sepoy while she was marketing in the native 
bazaar : " You will none of you come here much oftener," 
he said ; " you will not be alive another week." 

She reported this story, but it was not thought worthy 
of belief. 

Some officers tried to persuade the ladies to retire to 
Calcutta. 

" Why should we ? " was the reply ; " General Wheeler's 
family are here." 

But Sir Hugh had heard enough to make him nervous 
about the women and children. He began to consider a 
good site for a fort : the magazine was too far off* : there 
was no building large enough on the river-bank : he decided 
to strengthen the old dragoon hospital, which consisted of 
two brick buildings, one thatched, the other roofed with 
masonry, and a few outhouses. A mud wall, four feet high, 
was thrown up round this hospital : it was hard work digging 
in the rock-like ground, but they did what they could in 

the time. 

260 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

On the 21st of May the women and children were ordered 
into this enclosure ; the officers still slept in the native lines 
with their corps, lest the sepoys should think the officers 
suspected their loyalty. 

A few days later Lieutenant Ashe of the Bengal Artillery 
arrived from Lucknow with two 9-powders and one 24- 
pounder howitzer. So the garrison now had ten guns 
placed in wide embrasures that gave no cover, but exposed 
to the enemies' fire all who worked them. 

General Wheeler ordered supplies to last twenty-five 
days : surely they would be relieved before that ! Also the 
regimental mess sent in beer, wine and tinned food. Am- 
munition was plentiful, two thousand pounds of powder and 
plenty of round-shot. 

During the last days of May many of these doomed sons 
and daughters of Britain were busy writing the last letters 
they would ever pen. They were eager to catch the home 
mail — and some of them foresaw it would in all probability 
be their last. 

Colonel Ewart, sitting in his tent amongst the swagger- 
ing, insolent sepoys whom he had given many years to 
teach and train and improve, writes thus : " I do not wish 
to write gloomily, but there is no use in disguising the 
fact that we are in the utmost danger; and, as I have 
said, if the troops do mutiny, my life must almost 
certainly be sacrificed; but I do not think they will 
venture to attack the entrenched position which is held by 

the European troops. So I hope in God that E and 

my child will be saved. ... I know you will be everything 
a mother can be to my boy. I cannot write to him this 
time, dear little fellow. Kiss him for me : kind love to 
M and my brothers."" 

Had he some glimmer of the last procession to the 
river, when his own men would stop his litter, taunt him 
and slash him to pieces in presence of his wife, ere she met 
the same cruel fate ? 

And Mrs. Ewart, writing in the stuffy room of the 

261 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

barracks on the 1st of June, was sending her last message 
home by the Calcutta mail : " My dear little child is look- 
ing very delicate : my prayer is that she may be spared 
much suffering. The bitterness of death has been tasted 
by us many times during the last fortnight ; should the 
reality come, I hope we may find strength to meet it with a 
truly Christian courage. It is not hard to die oneself, but 
to see a dear child suffer and perish — that is the hard, the 
bitter trial, and the cup which I must drink should God 
not deem it fit that it should pass from me." 

If we only could read more of the letters in that last 
mail- bag from Cawnpur, we should be able to realise more 
fully the sterling worth of those heroes, great and small, 
who were beginning to tread the hard road that led through 
fear and thirst and suffering to a cruel death. 

" We must not give way to despondency," writes the 
same brave lady, " for at the worst we know that we are in 
God's hands. . . . He will be with us in the valley of the 
shadow of death also, and we need fear no evil." 

It is so difficult for us to realise that it is not the life of 
the body, or its preservation, that the providence of God 
takes charge of. Perhaps in the few weeks of painful, 
agonising endurance which these poor mortals went through 
they were training their spirit life for higher duties in a 
better world hereafter. That must be our chief consolation 
when we follow with indignant sympathy their earthly trials 
in the next three weeks. 

On the night of the 6th of June what all feared suddenly 
happened. The sowars of the 2nd Cavalry arose in the 
night with shouts, set fire to the bungalow of the English 
riding-master, attacked the soubahdar-major, or native 
colonel, who tried to defend the colours and treasure, 
and called upon the 1st Native Infantry to join them in 
mutiny. 

Colonel Ewart, hearing the tumult, ran across to his 
men, crying in Hindostani, " My children ! do not so great 
a wickedness — oh ! my children ! " 

262 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

It was useless to recall the sepoys to their duty : they 
were fired by the lust of loot and sped away to the treasury. 
The 56th Native Infantry followed the next morning : the 
53rd stood firm against evil counsel, until Sir Hugh Wheeler 
made the mistake of ordering Ashe's battery to open upon 
them ; the sepoys of the 53rd could not believe they were 
being fired upon at first, but at the third round they broke 
and fled. Their native officers had been called within the 
entrenchments before this : these and eighty men of the 
53rd who came in later gave their help to the white folk, 
until after nine days' fighting they were asked to depart, 
because there was not enough food to keep so many men ! 

There were a few hours of stillness before the storm ; 
the faithful sepoys were now employed in collecting and 
carting muskets, ammunition, etc., which had been left 
about in the native lines. The English officers drew a long 
breath of relief: the mutineers had doubtless gone off' to 
Delhi. At present they had only gone as far as the 
treasury, when the Nana met them with an escort and 
many elephants, swore fidelity to the national cause, and 
distributed much of the silver among the four regiments. 
Then the sepoys broke open the gaol and let out a motley 
host of God-forsaken rascals, who set to work at once and 
burned and sacked every European house, making a bonfire 
of all the records in the court-house, civil and criminal alike. 
The mutineers had travelled on the Delhi road as far as 
Kullianpur when they were overtaken by the Nana, his two 
brothers, Bala and Baba Bhut, and Azimoolah. 

" Return to Cawnpur, destroy all the Europeans, and I 
will give every man a gold anklet and license to pillage " ; 
so spake the Nana. 

The sepoys agreed, saluted the Nana as their Rajah and 
chose Teeke Sing chief of their cavalry, and other Hindoos 
as colonels of the 53rd and 56th. 

Next morning Sir Hugh Wheeler received a polite letter 
from the Nana, intimating that he was about to commence 
the attack. 

263 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

Sir Hugh at once summoned all the officers from the 
native lines within the entrenchment without delay : they 
came, leaving their breakfast coffee, their clothes and 
valuables, and hurried into the fatal precincts of the Dragoon 
hospital, which was exposed on four sides to attack, and 
was commanded by some half-finished barracks at distances 
varying from SOO to 800 yards. A small detachment was 
placed in No. 4 barrack, consisting chiefly of civil engineers, 
who were good shots and judges of distance. 

Captain Moore of Her Majesty's 32nd Foot assisted 
General Wheeler in arranging for the defence, and gradually 
became the practical chief. It was Sunday morning, about 
10 a.m., when the first shot fired by the mutineers came 
from a 9 -pounder ; it struck the crest of the mud wall and 
glided over into the smaller barrack, where it broke the leg 
of a native servant. 

A large party of ladies and children were sitting in the 
shade of the verandahs, when the whizz of the round-shot, 
and the bugle-call sending every man to his post, awoke all 
to the stern reality which was coming upon them. The 
children screamed with fright and ran into the dark rooms 
for safety. By noon the mutineers had placed many guns 
in position and the entrenchment was raked by 24-pound 
shot from every quarter. 

All through this first day the shrieks of the women and 
children were heart-rending, as often as the balls struck the 
walls and windows ; while a low wailing cry formed a 
piteous undertone of sad despair, but it was only on that 
first day that such sounds troubled the hearts of the brave 
defenders : after that. Captain Mowbray Thomson tells us, 
they had learnt silence and never uttered a sound except 
when groaning from the horrible mutilations they had to 
endure. Had their mothers taught these tiny heroes to 
suppress all cries of fear ? had they told them that if God 
willed they should die, He would welcome them in His arms 
to a better world than this ? 

Anyhow, the children grew used to the horrible noises and 

264 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

the fearful sights, and even ran and played about on the ex- 
posed ground between the mud walls of the entrenchment. 

Before the third evening every window and door had 
been battered in ; screens, piled-up furniture, partitions — all 
went down, and shell and cannon-ball ranged freely through 
the naked rooms. Grape and round-shot, bullets and falling 
timber killed many ladies and children in those first days, 
while the gunners at their guns fell mortally wounded in 
large numbers. 

But wherever there was pressing danger or direst misery, 
Captain Moore was not long before he came with encourag- 
ing sympathy to strengthen and comfort the suiferer. He 
was a tall, fair, blue-eyed Irishman, full of cheerful anima- 
tion and intrepid as a young lion. 

" Wherever Moore had passed," writes Sir G. Trevelyan, 
" he left men something more courageous, and women some- 
thing less unhappy."'*' 

The three civilians in No. 4 barrack outside the walls, 
Heberden, Latouche and Miller, with a few others had the 
most severe time : for after fighting all day they were 
assaulted in the dark by hundreds of sepoys who crept up 
to take them by surprise. 

To aid these gallant civil engineers Captain Jenkins of 
the 2nd Cavalry was given them as commander : and here 
the little company of sixteen held the key of the position. 
Lieutenant Glanville afterwards held No. 2, and when 
dangerously wounded was succeeded by Mowbray Thomson. 
Lieutenant Sterling, an expert shot with the rifle, did 
good service here : for Thomson contrived a sort of perch 
twenty feet up the wall in which Sterling used to sit and 
wait upon the unwary. 

Sometimes prisoners were brought in at night : on one 
occasion eleven sepoys were captured, and as no sentry 
could be spared to guard them, they were at a loss how to 
keep them. 

" Give me a sword, sir : 111 undertake to mind they 
don't get out.'' 

265 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

The officer turned in surprise, for it was a woman's voice 
surely. 

Yes, Bridget Widdowson, a stalwart dame indeed ! wife 
of a private in H.M.'s 32nd regiment. The prisoners were 
roped together, wrist to wrist, and sat motionless for more 
than an hour while the strong and brave woman marched 
with drawn sword before them. 

It is a pity — but when she retired and a male guard 
took her place, they all managed to slip away in the dark. 
After that no more prisoners were brought in. 

After a week*'s siege food began to grow scarce and the 
Europeans were put upon rations : once a lean horse allowed 
himself to be shot, and once a sacred bull went down before 
Mr. Sterling's rifle. But as his sanctity fell some three 
hundred yards away from the wall, to fetch in the beef 
might entail loss of human life. 

Yet beef was beef : so Captain Moore and eight others 
ran out with a strong rope, hauled in the bull at the cost of 
a few wounds and were rewarded by the cheers of the ladies. 

Alas ! Captain Jenkins, when carrying some horse-soup 
from No. 2 barrack to his wife, was shot dead. 

The heat was so intense that a gun- barrel left for a 
few minutes in the sun could not be touched, and many 
died of sunstroke. The well in the entrenchment was a 
great source of danger, as the rebels fired grape upon that 
spot as soon as any one came to draw water. At night they 
knew by the creaking of the tackle that water was being 
drawn and instantly opened with their artillery. 

Privates were paid eight shillings a bucket : but they 
were willing to draw water for nothing, to help the poor 
women and children. Soon John M'Killop, of the Civil 
Service, gallantly constituted himself captain of the well. 
For a week he drew water cheerfully for all : then a grape- 
shot wound in the groin removed him from the scene. 
The dead were thrown at night down a well outside the 
walls. By the end of the first week fifty-nine artillerymen 
had been killed at their posts : sunstroke had killed Major 

^66 



THE HEROES OF CAWTsiPUR 

Prout and Captain Kempland. Lieutenant Eckford was 
struck on the heart by a cannon-ball while resting under 
the verandah, Dempster was shot dead, and Martin had a 
bullet in his lungs : then untrained volunteers came forward 
to do what they could, firing 6-pound balls from damaged 
9-pounders. At last only two guns could be fired, and 
for these the ladies gave up their stockings to supply a 
sort of cartridge-case. On the eighth evening of the bom- 
bardment a shell settled among the rafters of the thatched 
barrack and it was burnt to the ground. There were sick 
and wounded within ; long after midnight men and women 
were working to get them out ; but in spite of all, two 
wounded artillerymen perished in the flames. 

The enemy advanced that night by hundreds with yells 
of defiance to storm Ashe's battery. Ashe held his fire until 
they came within sixty yards, and then let them have a 
charge of grape. Every man round the wall had eight or 
ten rifles which he fired in quick succession ; in half an hour 
a hundred sepoys lay dead. In the burnt barrack all 
medical stores and surgical instruments were consumed; 
and from that time no bullets could be extracted, no 
mutilations dressed. 

Amongst those who distinguished themselves during the 
fire was Lieutenant Ward, a son of Admiral Ward, "a 
model soldier," says Captain Thomson. That night of 
horror who can describe ? The men were either saving the 
wounded from the flames, or beating back the enemy. 
The poor children, huddled together in the ditch, were 
crying softly, the women, tired out, at last flung themselves 
down in the ditch too, for there was no room for them in 
the other barrack. 

Unshod, unkempt, ragged and squalid — for they had 
not had a pint of water to wash in for a week — they herded 
together in their misery. All good looks and signs of youth 
had fled: want, exposure, sorrow, depression had drawn 
awful lines upon faces recently so fair : fever and apoplexy 
and dysentery brooded over what shot and shell had spared. 

267 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

Not less than two hundred women and children now had 
to pass twelve days and nights upon the bare ground without 
a roof over their heads. The cold by night, the heat by day, 
were wearing them out slowly : but many of them braced 
themselves up to help the fighters ; they carried round am- 
munition, they tended the sick and wounded, they encouraged 
all by brave smiles and the appearances of indifference to their 
wretched state. Once a shell fell into Whiting's battery 
and killed seven soldiers' wives, who were sitting: together 
in the trench. 

Mrs. White, a private's wife, was walking beside her 
husband carrying her twin children, one on each arm ; they 
were well under cover, they thought, but a bullet killed the 
man and passed through the wife's arms, so that father, 
mother, and babes fell in a heap together. 

Thomson says : " I saw her afterwards in the main-ffuard 
lymg on her back with the childi^en laid, one at each breast, 
while the mother's bosom refused not what her broken arms 
could not administer." 

Mrs. Williams, after losing her husband, Colonel 
Williams, early in the siege, was herself shot in the face : 
her daughter, who was also suffering from a bullet-wound, 
attended to her till she died. 

An ayah had both her legs taken off by a round-shot : 
the babe was picked up smeared with blood, but unhurt. 

It is too harrowing to go through the fatal list of 
suflPerers : Miss Brightman, Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Reynolds and 
many more were killed. But those who were not killed 
became the greatest martyrs. 

One poor woman must have had some premonition of 
this ; for she ran out with a child in each hand, courting 
sudden death; but a private bravely went after her and 
dragged them back to cover. 

Mr. Hillersden, the magistrate of Cawnpur, was standing 
in the verandah talking to his wife, who had only recently 
recovered from her accouchement, when a round-shot cut 
him in two. Mrs. Hillersden died three days later under a 

268 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

fall of bricks. Thomson says : " She was a most accomplished 
lady, and by reason of her cheerfulness, amiability and piety 
a universal favourite." 

The general's son. Lieutenant Wheeler, was sitting on a 
sofa, faint with a wound just received : his sister was fanning 
him when a round-shot passed through the room and carried 
away his head. Father, mother and two sisters were in the 
room at the time. 

Lieutenant Daniell was among the bravest of the young 
officers. He had been a favourite of the Nana, and had often 
been invited to the palace at Bithoor : once the Nana took a 
valuable diamond ring from his own finger and gave it to 
Daniell. He was scarce twenty years old, a splendid rider 
and good in all field sports, full of fun and enthusiastic love 
of life. 

One day, as Thomson and he were dashing round to 
clear the out-buildings of sepoys, they heard sounds of a 
struggle going on within. They entered and saw Captain 
Moore lying on the ground, a powerful native kneeling over 
him with tulwar raised. In a moment Daniell had run the 
sepoy through with his bayonet. 

" Thanks, old fellow,'' said Moore, rishig stiffly ; " my 
broken collar-bone has a bit disabled me : that was a touch 
and go." 

In the multitude of terrible accidents this was as 
nothing : Daniell survived the siege, but was wounded during 
the embarkation by a musket-shot in the temple, and prob- 
ably fell into the river. 

About ten days after the beginning of the bombardment, 
very early in the morning mist, the sentinels saw some one 
riding up at a gallop. A shot was fired and the horse was 
hit, but rose at the wall and cleared it like a bird. 

" A white man, by Jove ! " The excitement spread 
through the camp. 

"I am Lieutenant Bolton of the 7th Cavalry — excuse 
my feeble voice, friends. Yes, I was sent out with a detach- 
ment of the 48th from Lucknow to keep open the road from 

269 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

Futteyghur to Cawnpur : our men mutinied ; Major Staples 
and 1 rode away — pursued — poor Staples shot — fell from his 
horse. They cut him to pieces. Three troopers chased me 
for sixteen miles, one gave me this bullet-hole through my 
cheek. I gave them the slip last night, got through the 
Nana's camp unobserved. Didn't know where you fellows 
were, so slept out in the plain all night. At daybreak I 
spotted the entrenchment and rode for safety, as you see.'** 

Safety ! an ironical smile must have passed round the 
listening group. Well, this Lieutenant Bolton proved a 
valuable addition to the garrison. He joined the out-picket 
under Captain Jenkins and lived through the siege to perish 
in the boats. 

The 23rd of June, being the centenary of Plassey, the 
rebels showed signs of keeping the eve thereof by a series of 
night assaults. After repelling two or three attacks, Captain 
Moore and Delafosse came across to Thomson's barrack, and 
the former said : " Thomson, I think I shall try a new 
dodge ; we are going out into the open, and I shall give the 
word of command as though our party were about to com- 
mence an attack." 

Forthwith out they went into the dark space beyond 
the walls, Moore with a sword, Delafosse carrying an empty 
musket. The gay captain shouted in stentorian tones, 
" Number one to the front ! " Thereat, like rabbits scuttling 
to a warren, hundreds of sepoys bolted out from their cover 
behind heaps of rubbish to the safer shelter of the barrack 
walls. 

With a hearty laugh at their success in clearing out 
the hiding foe, they returned to their posts. But by dawn 
the sixteen men in No. 2 had shot eighteen sepoys just 
outside their doorway. 

On the 23rd, great efforts were made to break into the 
entrenchment ; cavalry rode up winded and retired in 
confusion after a dose of grape. General Wheeler grew 
less and less able to superintend the posts of defence : his 
short, spare figure was seldom seen now : the death of his 

270 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

son seemed to have taken all the vigour out of him. Mrs. 
Moore often accompanied her husband in his visits to the 
various posts : the men fitted up a bamboo hut for her. 
Alas ! she lived long enough to endure the last torments 
in the house of massacre. 

Mr. Moncrieff, the station chaplain, had been very 
devoted to his work all through, spending most of his time 
in the hospital, but going round the post and batteries to 
read a prayer or psalm ; the men would bow head for a 
minute or two, and think on these things. 

Meanwhile the Nana had managed to intercept a few 
stray travellers, families going down stream and others : 
all these he ordered to be shot, though they had nothing 
to do with Cawnpur. 

On the twenty-first day of the siege the look-out men 
in the crow's nest of the barrack shouted to Captain 
Thomson, " There's a woman coming across." The captain 
knocked up a man's arm who would have fired at her, only 
just in time to save her : the poor thing had neither shoes 
nor stockings, and held a child to her breast. 

As Thomson lifted her over the barricade he recognised 
her as Mrs. Greenway, wife of a wealthy merchant in the 
city. Her husband had paid the Nana c£'30,000 to save 
the lives of the whole household. The monster took the 
ransom and killed all save this lady. 

As soon as she had recovered herself, Mrs. Greenway 
(or, as some assert, Mrs. Jacobi, a friend of the Greenways), 
handed Captain Thomson this letter : — 

"To the subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen 
Victoria, — 

" All those who are in no way connected with the acts 
of Lord Dalhousie, and are willing to lay down their arms, 
shall receive a safe passage to Allahabad." 

It was unsigned, but the handwriting was that of 
Azimoolah. 

Thomson took the letter at once to Captain Moore, 

271 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

who, together with General Wheeler and Captain Whiting, 
deliberated over the contents. 

Sir Hugh, fearing treachery on the part of the Nana, 
for a long time opposed the idea of making terms. But 
when the others reminded him that they had only three 
days' rations left, that the rains were due and would in- 
evitably wash away the ramparts and level the hospital, 
he gave in. It was the thought of the women and children 
that made the younger men agree to treat: if they had 
only had men to consider, they would have made a dash 
for Allahabad, and Moore would have led the forlorn hope. 

As Mrs. Greenway waited for the reply, she answered 
inquiries as to how she had been treated : very cruelly, she 
said, on a starving allowance of chupatties and water, 
stripped of all clothing but a gown ; her ear-rings had been 
pulled out roughly ; and she cried bitterly as she mentioned 
her wrongs. She was sent back in the afternoon with the 
messao-e that the general was in deliberation as to his 
answer. The Maharaja heard the lady's message and sent 
her back to her prison : he needed her no further. 

Next morning Azimoolah, accompanied by Jwala Pershad, 
the brigadier of the Nana's cavalry, walked up to within 
200 yards of the outer barrack and met Moore, Whiting, 
and Mr. Roche, the postmaster, in conference. It was 
agreed that the Encrlish should surrender the fortification, 
treasury and artillery, should go forth armed with sixty 
rounds of ammunition per man; that carriages should be 
provided for the sick and wounded, and that boats furnished 
with flour should be ready at the ghaut. 

To this the native delegates agreed, and one graciously 
added : " Yes, and we will give you sheep and goats also." 

The Nana read over the terms and sent a trooper to say 
that the entrenchments must be evacuated the same night. 

After some haggling and threats, the Nana consented 
to put it off till next morning. Then Mr. Todd, who had 
been the Nana's tutor, went over to get the Nana's sig- 
nature : he was courteously received, and returned with 

272 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

the signature affixed. As if to show their good faith, the 
rebels sent three men into the entrenchment to stay the 
night as hostages. One of these was Jwala Pershad : this 
gentleman made a parade of condoling with General Wheeler 
upon the privations he had undergone, and assured him that 
no harm should come upon any one to-morrow. 

A company of the Nana's artillerymen stood guard 
by the guns all night. Meanwhile Captain Turner and 
Lieutenants Delafosse and Goad were deputed to go down 
to the river and see if the boats were being got ready : 
they went on elephants with an escort of native cavalry, 
and found about forty boats moored near the bank. But 
to their vexation the boats were in a very dilapidated 
state ; so, four hundred workmen were set to work repairing 
the thatched roofs and making a flooring of bamboo. As 
the officers waited, provisions were brought on men''s heads 
and stored on board : all seemed to be in a fair way for 
the departure. But one thing perplexed them not a little : 
Captain Turner had listened to the idle talk of some men 
of the 56th Native Infantry who were lying on the river's 
bank : he distinctly overheard the word " kuttle " repeated, 
and everytime with a sardonic laugh. Now " kuttle " means 
massacre, and it made him uneasy ; but he made no report 
of it, because it was not evidence strong enough to bring 
a charge of treachery. 

And now the little garrison lay down for their last sleep 
in the entrenchments : all was quiet, except the well and 
bucket : quite a little queue of waiting children stood by it, 
and every one enjoyed a good drink of the cloudy water. 
Double rations were given round. The faces of the women 
grew less anxious : the children laughed and played till they 
dropped down that Friday evening in a pleasant, peaceful 
sleep. 

The women whispered together as they rested after 
collecting their few valuables : " Will it be all right to- 
morrow, think you ? " or " Will they really let us go down 
in safety to Allahabad ? '' 

s 273 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

The strange stillness of the night, in contrast to the 
usual pandemonium of shot and shell, kept many of the men 
awake till long past midnight : perhaps their confidence in 
the Nana and in Azimoolah was not so strong as they had 
pretended during the day. They could hear the jackals 
barking as they prowled around amongst the dead bodies 
outside ; and the dawn disclosed to view a greedy company 
of vultures and adjutant birds hard at work. 

The S7th of June shone fiercely on a busy scene of men 
and women preparing to leave their frail home : some were 
hiding little relics of jewellery in the tattered fragments of 
their dress. For there was no distinction of dress now 
between rich and poor : all were bare-legged, for their 
stockings had gone to the ammunition-box. All were clad 
in short skirts and scanty underclothing, because they had 
torn up all their linen to serve as bandages. 

Perhaps the greatest relief this morning was to be able 
to wash face and hands after three weeks' grime and dust 
and heat insupportable. 

But in the Nana's tent his kinsmen and courtiers had 
been hearing Azimoolah's plans and arranging the parts 
each was to play in the coming tragedy. Tantia Topee, 
a Mahratta warrior, was in command of the troops to be 
employed. He was to order 5 guns and 500 picked shots 
to muster at the landing-place two hours before daybreak. 

Certain rebel nobles were to present themselves with their 
retinue, and the cavalry were informed something of what 
was brewing. But, to the Nana's surprise, these sepoys 
came crowding before his tent, shouting indignantly against 
the treachery — a breach of faith that the gods might well 
resent. This was a little awkward, and promised a hitch 
in the Nana's arrangements which might spoil the day's 
entertainment. 

The Maharaja came out and made the excited men a 
speech : " I assure you, my trusty sowars, that it is per- 
missible to forswear at such a time as this : I tell you this 
on the authority of a royal Brahmin ! For my part, if the 

274 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

object was to annihilate an enemy— and that enemy an 
unbeliever— I would not hesitate to take a false oath on 
burning oil or holy water.'' 

The sowars bowed their heads and went apart to 
grumble : for they had known the white man"'s faith, and 
still possessed a conscience. 

It was early when sixteen elephants and eighty palan- 
quins were driven down to take the sick and wounded, 
women and children. More than two hundred were thus 
to be conveyed to the river. There were crowds of sepoys 
lookmg on indifferently : not one offered a helping hand as 
the wounded were borne along to the palanquins, and many 
a groan was forced from unwilling throats as the rude 
shaking jolted half-healed wounds. 

The women and children were put on the elephants and 
into bullock-carts ; the able-bodied walked down after them. 

As soon as the first party had gone, the sepoys flocked 
in to examine and poke about for treasure. 

"And did you dare to stand up against us with just this 
poor mud wall ? " said one. 

" Give me that musket," said another, catching hold of 
the barrel. 

" You shall have its contents, if you like : but not the 
gun," was the stern reply. 

The sepoys said they had lost a thousand men: they 
inquired after some of their old officers ; and when informed 
that they were dead, seemed sincerely distressed. The 
Eastern mind is difficult to fathom. Major Vibart was the 
last officer to leave. Some sepoys of his old regiment 
insisted on helping him with his boxes, and escorted his 
wife and family down to the boats with many outward 
marks of respect. 

The Suttee Chowra Ghaut, or landing-place, was within 
a mile to the north-west of the entrenchments. Here a 
ravine runs into the Ganges, which in summer is dry and 
lumpy, in the wet season is a boiling torrent. High banks 
and decayed fences and prickly pear stand up on either 

275 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

side as the gorge descends to the shore, where there is an 
open space 150 yards long and 100 deep. On the left of 
this as you face the river was a village, on the right a temple 
in good repair rises above the river on a little raised plateau, 
looking like an old-fashioned summer-house. A steep flight 
of steps leads down to the water, which is shallow and muddy 
for many yards. 

Tantia Topee was there in the cold dawn of Saturday 
making his arrangements as the master of the Nana's 
ceremonies. 

He placed a strong body of sepoys under cover of the 
village, and a squadron of troopers near the little temple : 
others were secreted behind some timber near the river. 
A field-piece was posted a quarter of a mile down the 
river, and on the opposite shore, facing the little ravine, 
stood two cannon with a battalion of infantry and some 
cavalry. 

The heavy boats rested on the sandy bottom ; the boat- 
men had had their instructions, and munched their cold rice 
and handed the pipe round, or said their prayers religiously. 
For was it not a religious ceremony they were going to share 
in — ridding the earth of a party of unbelievers in order to 
start life anew ! 

Before the procession of the victims arrived, thousands 
of townsfolk from the city thronged down to the landing- 
place. Curiosity brought some, and sorrow shone in the eyes 
of many a merchant who knew his best customers were 
going away. 

Besides, was there not a fine spectacle to behold ? — 
Azimoolah and the brothers of the Peishwa, and so many 
nobles glittering in jewels and gold as they rode proudly 
down and joined Tantia Topee on the Temple platform ; 
a fine elephant, equipped with a state howdah, had been 
sent by the Nana for Sir Hugh Wheeler, his old and 
respected friend. The general was sensible of the attention : 
but it looked too much like a victorious leader sitting in 
triumph ; and the poor old man, after seeing his wife and 

276 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

daughters safely mounted, called for a homely palanquin 
and was carried beside them. 

The sepoys, as a rule, had no inkling of what was to 
follow : they talked freely to our men and peered about, 
finding only two bottles of liquid butter, a sack of flour, 
and, lying on quilts on the floor, eleven Europeans, evidently 
near death. 

But already some of the rebels began to show a diff'erent 
temper. Lady Wheeler, just before mounting her elephant, 
had presented her ayah with a small bag of rupees for 
her constant fidelity. When the elephant moved off' a 
sepoy relieved her of her treasure and dealt her a slash 
with a sabre : some sepoy servants who had been faithful 
to the last were rudely seized and carried off* to death. 

Colonel and Mrs. Ewart had started late, she on foot 
walking by the side of her husband's litter, which was 
carried by four native porters. As they came up to 
St. John's Church, seven or eight sepoys of the Colonel's 
own battalion stepped up, shouted to the porters and said, 
" Set down your load, brothers : stand back a while." 

Then in taunting language they cried, " This is a fine 
parade, is it not ? is it not well dressed up, eh ? " 

At once they set to and hewed him to pieces with their 
swords : then turning to Mrs. Ewart, who stood pale and 
trembling, they said: "Throw down whatever you have 
about you and go your ways : for you are a woman ; we 
will not kill a woman." 

Thereat she took out of her dress something tied up 
and handed it over to one of the sepoys, who instantly 
cut her down dead ! 

When the last of the garrison had entered the defile, 
a double line of troops formed across the mouth of the 
gorge and kept off" any who wished to follow. 

One sepoy was overheard to say, " They know not what 
is before them. Now let them repent of their misdeeds, 
and ask pardon of God." 

Meanwhile the sight of the shining river had given 

277 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

heart to many : the children openly rejoiced and thought 
all their fears and sufferings were over at last. 

But to get on board was not so easy, for no planks 
were laid to serve as gangway : the Hindoo boatmen stood 
in their boats, silent, giving no help to men or women. 

Standing knee-deep in the water, the British officers 
hoisted in the wounded and the women. The children, 
once on board, saw smoking plates of boiled rice, and were 
laughing merrily at the unwonted sight when the loud 
blast of a bugle came ringing down the ravine. Then 
occurred a dramatic scene which had been well prepared 
by Tantia Topee and his myrmidons. 

The native rowers leaped into the water and hurried 
splashing to the water's edge : crack went the carbines 
of a hundred sowars : and before the Englishmen could 
handle their rifles, the straw roofs of the boats burst into 
flames from the red-hot charcoal which the boatmen had 
thrust into the thatch. 

The guns thundered from the opposite bank, throwing 
grape amongst the startled fugitives : many girls leaped 
overboard and crouched beneath the prowls, or waded out 
till the water touched their chins. The men set their 
shoulders to the sterns and sides of the boats and tried 
to push out into deep water. 

Only three boats moved away, and of these two drifted 
across to the Oudh bank into the hands of the pitiless foe. 

The third boat floated downstream almost unnoticed, 
for the smoke from the burning boats was spreading a 
pall over the scene. Into this boat some vigorous men 
had climbed: Vibart and Whiting, Ashe of the artillery, 
Delafosse and Bolton, Moore and Blenman, Glanville and 
Burney and a few others. 

Sir George Trevelyan gives an account related by two 
Eurasian women, wives of musicians in the band of the 
Fifty-sixth : — 

" In the boat where I was to have gone,"" said Mrs. 
Bradshaw, " was the schoolmistress and twenty-two misses. 

278 




< 



M 
H 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

General Wheeler came last, in a palkee. They carried him 
into the water near the boat : I stood close by : he said, 
' Carry me a little farther towards the boat.' But a 
trooper said, ' No, get out here.' 

" As the general got out of the palkee, head foremost, 
the trooper gave him a cut with his sword into the neck ; 
he fell into the water ! Some women were stabbed with 
bayonets, others cut down. Little infants were torn in 
pieces : we saw it ! . . . the school-children were burnt to 
death. I saw their clothes and hair catch fire." 

There was more evidence of similar nature, very heart- 
rending and amply explaining the savage temper in which 
the news was received in England : where public meetings 
were held in every town, great or small ; and a fierce 
requital was demanded. Tantia Topee stood on the 
Temple platform all this time and saw to it that none 
escaped. 

With a motion of his hand he sent a few score sepoys 
into the water, like otter-hounds keen on the scent, to 
collect the girls that still crouched under the charred boats 
or in deeper water. With blows and shrieks for mercy, 
with tearing off ear-rings and rude pushing, one hundred 
and twenty-five were assembled near the landing-place 
and made to sit in the sand — a piteous company. There, 
in the heat of the morning, faint and desperate, they were 
made to abide, with sentries posted round : then they 
were marched back through the ravine and past the 
European bazaar, the chapel and racquet court. On 
either side surged a crowd of exulting natives, whose hands 
were full of silver and jewellery. Many of the ladies were 
barefoot and wounded, their clothes were covered with mud 
and blood and torn to tatters : a few children were naked : 
there were boys of twelve years of age, but no men in that 
procession of victims. 

At last they emerged from the plain and were halted 
in front of the Maharaja's grand pavilion. The Nana 
glutted his eyes with the sorry sight, and then ordered 

279 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

them to be taken to the Savada house, a one-storied build- 
ing to which was attached a small courtyard : here in two 
large and dirty rooms, furnished with cupboards, they 
remained until the final massacre ; this was ordered perhaps 
by Azimoolah on hearing of the imminent approach of 
Havelock. 

Let us now return to the escaping boat under Major 
Vibart. Mowbray Thomson tells us that after trying to 
push his boat out into deep water and finding it immovable, 
he and nine or ten others swam after the one boat which 
was drifting downstream. Close by Thomson''s side were two 
brothers Henderson of the 56th Native Infantry : the younger 
soon went down from weakness, the elder was wounded in 
the hand by grape-shot, but managed with Thomson's help 
to reach Vibart's boat, which was stranded on a sand-bank 
on the Oudh side of the river. 

Captain Whiting pulled them in terribly exhausted: 
all of the other swimmers sank or were shot in the water, 
except Lieutenant Harrison of the 2nd Light Cavalry and 
Private Murphy. Harrison had reached a small islet on 
the Cawnpur side, where he was attacked by three sowars 
armed with the tulwar : they had just cut down an English 
lady, and were bent on finishing off an English gentleman. 
But Harrison had his revolver at hand, and in spite of his 
late immersion it responded to the trigger ; two sowars 
went down before him, the third turned tail and sought the 
water. Harrison then plunged in on the river side of the 
island and swam to Vibarfs boat. 

And now another boat came drifting down, but was 
struck by a round shot below water-mark and began to fill. 

However, Vibart managed to take them off, and crowded 
his own boat so much that there was little room to work 
her with the spars they had. There was no rudder, and 
the boatman had taken away the oars : grape and round shot 
flew about the huddled fugitives from either bank, and on that 
27th of June many were killed and thrown overboard. 

Captain Moore, the cheery Irishman, was shot in the 

280 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

heart while pushing off' the boat : Ashe of the artillery and 
Bolton, the young officer who had ridden his horse over the 
entrenchment wall, were also shot. Burney and Glanville 
were cut asunder by the same round-shot that shattered 
Lieutenant Fagan's leg below the knee. 

Mrs. Swinton, standing up in the stern, was knocked 
by a round-shot into the river. Her little boy, six years 
old, went up to Thomson and said, " Mamma has fallen 
overboard. Captain Thomson." 

"Thank God, my little man, that He has taken your 
mother away : she will not suffer any more pain now, poor 
dear." 

" Oh ! why are they firing at us ? "" cried the child ; " did 
they not promise to leave off"?" History does not relate 
what became of that little boy. 

They had no food to eat all through the long-drawn agony 
of that blazing day : at 5 p.m. they stranded again after a 
six miles' drift, and were attacked by a burning boat and 
lighted arrows ; so that it became necessary to cut down the 
thatch and throw it overboard. Four more miles were made 
in the night. Next day Vibart was shot twice through the 
arm. Captain Turner had both legs smashed. Whiting was 
killed, Lieutenant Quin and Captain Seppings were shot 
through the arm, Mrs. Seppings through the thigh. Lieu- 
tenant Harrison was shot dead, and many others not named. 
At sunset a boat sent from Cawnpur with fifty natives well- 
armed grounded close to them on a sandbank: twenty 
British charged them, and instead of their finishing the 
Nana's massacre, they met their own doom. 

Their boat was well supplied with ammunition, which 
was useful : but still our people had no food, and began 
to feel very faint and weary. 

The next night a hurricane came on and set the boat 
floating; but as daylight came they found they had 
drifted up a side stream. At 9 a.m. Major Vibart directed 
Thomson, Delafosse, Grady, and eleven privates to wade 
ashore and drive off" the sepoys who were firing at them, 

^81 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

This forlorn hope saved four lives : for, maddened by 
desperation, these fourteen men charged and cut through 
the sepoys, driving them back from the river : on their 
return they found their boat gone ! The only chance now 
was to take flight anywhere : after retreating three miles 
they fortified themselves in a little temple, shot many 
assailants, but were smoked out : they dashed through the 
crowd outside, and seven reached the water, into which 
they threw their guns and then themselves. 

As they swam more were shot : four approached the 
shore, but seeing some armed men standing near, they 
turned to swim away. 

" Sahib ! Sahib ! why swim away ? we are friends," 
they shouted. 

They even offered to throw their weapons into the river 
to prove their sincerity. As one by one the Englishmen 
reached the shallow water, they fell exhausted — they had 
just swum six miles, their feet had been burnt in escaping 
from the temple : they only asked for a speedy death. But 
what were the natives doing ? 

Gently they drew the white men up on the dry sand, 
wrapped them in blankets, rubbed their bare limbs, and 
told how they were the retainers of the Rajah Dirigbijah 
Singh, of Moorar Mhow, in Oudh ; this loyal gentleman 
treated the four men, Thomson, Delafosse, Sullivan, and 
Murphy, right royally and gave them each a piece of carpet 
to cover their bodies. Here they were hospitably entertained 
for a month, enjoying the simple fare of the Brahmins and 
the precious balm of unbroken sleep. 

Three times during their stay the Nana sent word to 
the Rajah that he must surrender the white men : but the 
old chief took no heed : he was a gentleman indeed ! It is 
pleasant to know that the English Government conferred upon 
him a handsome pension when the Mutiny was suppressed. 

In course of time these four survivors of the Cawnpur 
massacre were taken across the river, and to their joy met a 
detachment of the 84th under Havelock. 

282 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

They were only thirty miles from Cawnpur, marching 
in Havelock's rear and seeing on all sides the signs of 
recent battle. 

Thomson went off alone, on arrival at Cawnpur, to see 
the place where they kept the flag flying for three weeks, 
and where so many loved ones were lying deep in the old 
well outside the mud walls. To his surprise. Dame 
Nature had covered up all the ghastly sights with a 
luxuriant growth of long grasses ; as if she said : " Let the 
dead past go and be forgotten : be strong, quit yourselves 
as men ; for there is always work to be done in a naughty 
world." 

General Neill no sooner heard of the four survivors 
being in his camp than he sent for them and heard their 
story. 

The two officers were given honourable posts ; Delafosse 
lived to fight under Chamberlain in the Hindu Kush, 
Thomson to write his story of the Mutiny, " so told that it 
may be read by a Christian without horror, and by an 
educated person without disgust." 

Murphy became custodian of the Memorial Gardens : 
Sullivan lived fourteen days in peace and safety, and then 
succumbed to an attack of cholera, being worn out by his 
privations and sufferings. A native spy told how Vibart's 
boat came back to the Ghaut at Cawnpur ; sixty sahibs, 
twenty-five mem-sahibs and four children. "The Nana 
ordered the sahibs to be separated from the mem-sahibs 
and shot by the First Bengal Native Infantry." But they 
refused. However, some men of the Naduic regiment offered 
to kill them. 

" So the sahibs were seated on the ground, and two 
companies stood with their muskets ready to fire. Then 
said one of the mem-sahibs (the wife of Dr. Boyes), ' I 
will not leave my husband : if he must die, I will die with 
him.' So she ran and sat down behind her husband, clasp- 
ing him round the waist. Then the other mem-sahibs said, 
' We also will die with our husbands ' ; and they all sat 

283 



THE HEROES OF CAWNPUR 

down, each by her husband. . . . The Nana ordered his 
soldiers to pull them away : but they could not pull away 
the doctor's wife, and she remained there. Then the Padre 
(Captain Seppings) asked leave to read prayers before they 
died. . . . After he had read a few prayers he shut the book 
and the sahibs shook hands all round. Then the sepoys 
fired : one sahib rolled one way, one another, as they sat. 
But they were not dead, only wounded. So they went in 
and finished them off' with swords." 

It is painful to read such things, but it is ungrateful to 
forget the heroes and heroines of those terrible days. They 
died for us and for England, and their brave example must 
surely nerve us, if ever the time should come, to scorn 
danger, suff'ering, and death, in defence of hearth and home. 

In part from Cawnpore, by kind permission of The Right Hon. 
Sir George Trevelyan, Bart., and Messrs. Macmillan. 



384 



CHAPTER Xlll 

HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM : THE RELIEVERS 
OF LUCKNOW 

SIR HENRY HAVELOCK, returned from his Persian 
campaign, was summoned to Calcutta, informed of 
the facts of the Mutiny, given the command of the 
Cawnpur district, and hurried off to Allahabad, for the 
Government still hoped to be in time to relieve Wheeler. 
As he led his column through the streets of that city in a 
drenching rain, the natives from the house-tops scowled and 
spat and cursed the foreigner. 

It was the 30th of June when he reached Allahabad, and 
after organising his little force he set out for Cawnpur on 
the evening of the 7th of July. He had heard that Cawnpur 
had fallen, but Colonel Neill, who had done wonders at 
Benares and had saved Allahabad, was loth to believe the 
news, and Havelock hoped it was untrue. 

With 1000 English infantry and 150 Sikhs, and 
taking his own son from the 10th Foot to be his aide-de- 
camp, Havelock pushed on to join Major Renaud, who had 
been sent on by Neill with 400 Europeans, 300 Sikhs, and 
ISO troopers. They made a forced march of twenty-four 
miles without stopping to rest. Then they halted for their 
well-earned breakfast, smoked, lay back under the trees, 
when with a shout some horsemen sent out to reconnoitre 
came in at a gallop ; and well they might, for round-shot 
were bowling along the hard road close at their heels. 

Drums beat the assembly, up jumped the soldiers, 
clutched their rifles and fell into line. 

It was the Sabbath morn, but war takes no heed of 

285 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

Sabbaths. Brigadier Havelock came up to the 78th and 
cried, " Highlanders, 1 promised you a field-day in Persia, 
but the Persians ran away. We will have that field-day 
now — let yonder fellows see what you are made of."" 

Captain Maude, R.A., was directed to place his 8 guns 
in front, behind were the men armed with the new Enfield 
rifle, while the horse guarded the flanks, volunteers the right, 
irregulars the left. The rebels' guns were the first to open 
fire, but when Maude began he soon silenced the enemy : 
then advancing within 200 yards of the rebel infantry, he 
poured in a withering fire. 

Meanwhile the rebel cavalry rode up to our native 
troopers and said, " Comrades, leave these white men and 
follow us." 

As they hesitated, Palliser sounded the charge : only 
three or four men rode after him. Palliser was unhorsed, 
but was rescued by some of his own men who had at first 
refused to charge. Our men galloped into Futtehpur after 
the fleeing rebels, captured 12 guns, much ammunition, and 
some silver. Twelve of our men died that day of sun-stroke. 

After the battle the men enjoyed a rest in a mango 
grove ; and the next day too they were allowed to lie idle 
and recoup themselves. Amongst the spoil an ominous 
find was that of many dresses of English ladies : that re- 
minded them that they had no time to lose. 

On the 14th, Havelock resumed his advance along a 
road strewn with properties cast aside by the rebels. 

The native troopers who had behaved so badly in the last 
fight were disarmed and placed on duty as baggage guards : 
but they seized an opportunity, when some alarm occupied the 
troops, to plunder the baggage : they were then dismounted 
and dismissed. 

Next day they found the rebels in force at Aoung : in 
dislodging them Major Renaud was killed — a skilled and 
gallant soldier ; after a few rounds of Maude's battery the 
sepoys gave way and some guns were taken. 

As our men were resting reports came that the enemy 

286 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

had retired to a strong position, covered by a swollen stream, 
called Pandu Nadi : here there was a stone bridge. 

" We must secure that bridge before the rebels destroy 
it," said Havelock : and the men had to rise and labour on. 

Three miles' hot marching under an afternoon sun brought 
them to the bridge, intact, but guarded by two guns. 

Maude was ordered up, and at his first discharge he 
smashed their sponge-stafFs and they could load no longer. 

The Madras Fusiliers and Highlanders dashed across the 
bridge, bayoneted the gunners, and Maude pounded the rest 
as they ran. 

Once more they lay down for a night's sleep ; but 
Havelock received a message that Nana Sahib with 7000 
men was ready to oppose his entry into Cawnpur on the 
morrow ; he was told also that SOO women and children 
were still held alive. 

The news flew through the camp and cheered the weary 
fighters. " With God's help, men," Havelock exclaimed, " we 
shall save them, or every man of us die in the attempt." 

" To-morrow we shall be in Cawnpur, and we will save 
the women and children," so said many an excited soldier 
that night. 

They started very early and marched fourteen miles out 
of the twenty-two — then they rested ; the day was fearfully 
hot and exhausting. 

Barrow, sent on to get information, met two faithful 
sepoys who were coming to inform Havelock of the Nana's 
position at a spot where the road forks, a branch going off 
from the Grand Trunk road to Cawnpur. 

The Nana, being sure the English would pass that fork, 
had measured the distance and trained all his eight guns on 
the spot. Therefore Havelock gave the men their dinners, 
and at half a mile from the fork turned off with most of 
his men to the right, while Barrow with the Fusiliers went 
straight on in skirmishing order. A thick grove concealed 
the main body until they were well to the right of the 
enemy. Before the guns could be brought round Havelock 

287 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

shouted to the 78th, " Now, my lads, go and take that 
battery."" 

With sloped arms and measured tread they swept on in 
grim silence through the iron storm that whizzed above them, 
till at 100 yards' range the word " Charge ! " rang out. 

Then with a cheer they dashed forward as the pipes 
skirled ; not a shot was fired, so fiercely did they desire to 
use the bayonet, and in a few minutes they had climbed the 
mound and silenced guns and gunners. 

" One more charge ! take the big guns yonder ! " 

Again they dashed in and smashed up the enemy's 
centre, took the village and chased the rebels through the 
streets. 

On the other wing the 64th and 84th had also forced 
back the enemy, one regiment racing against the other. 

Havelock now thought the battle had been won — his men 
had marched twenty miles and fought a fierce battle ; they 
fell down worn out ; in a few minutes they again rose and 
mounted the low rise which separated them from Cawnpur. 

As they reached the summit they saw the reunited forces 
of the rebels half a mile in front. In the centre was Nana 
Sahib, seated on an elephant, and native music was playing. 

Three guns opened fire from their centre and a fierce 
discharge of musketry saluted the worn-out soldiers. 

Havelock's guns were a mile in the rear, and their horses 
were done ; he knew he must call on his infantry for one 
more effort. So he rode to the front on his pony — his horse 
having been shot — and said — 

" The longer you look at it, men, the less you will like 
it. The brigade will advance, left battalion leading." 

Major Sterling and Havelock's son led the 64th through 
round-shot and grape, charged and routed the foe. 

Then to sleep on the bare ground — no tents, no food, 
no grog ! but dimly in the short twilight they could discern 
the roofless barracks of Cawnpur, and they were well content. 

Early next morning they heard a loud explosion — the 
Nana had blown up his magazine ! 

288 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

Tytler reported that the rebels had left the city and its 
environs, so they stepped joyously forth to rescue the women 
and children. 

Alas ! as they drew near the house in which they had 
been confined, they were told that all had been just 
massacred ! 

In a horror of silence they heard the awful news. 

Many went into the rooms and courtyard, seeing the 
fragments of dress and hair, the children's socks soaked in 
blood, the marks on the walls of bullet and sword-cut. Some 
came out with oaths of vengeance, some with tears, some 
vowed they could never go near that spot again. 

The number of victims counted by General Havelock's 
order as buried in the well was 118 women and 92 children. 

It has been said that the walls bore on them pencilled 
messages : but a friend of the writer who was there with Sir 
Colin's force informs him that he saw none ; they must have 
been added by soldiers visiting the house. 

What was seen at Cawnpur, and what was told in 
England, explains, if it does not justify to all minds, the 
terrible vengeance which was taken : similar scenes had 
occurred at Meerut and Delhi and elsewhere, but nothing 
on so large a scale as at Cawnpur. 

After one day's rest Havelock marched to Bithoor and 
burnt the Nana's palace, that chief having fled over the 
Ganges. 

Havelock then designed and armed a fortified work 
commanding the Ganges, in which he left 300 men under 
Neill. 

On the 25th July he crossed the river with some 1200 
European troops, ten small field-pieces and a few Sikhs. 

When he had fought his way but 15 miles towards 
Lucknow, Havelock had lost 170 men by wounds or sick- 
ness and had used up one-third of his gun ammunition : 
at this moment too he learnt of the mutiny at Dinapur and 
knew he could receive no reinforcements. In a moment of 
despondency he fell back, on the 31st, on Mangalwar, 5 miles 
T 289 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

from Cawnpur ; thence he wrote to Neill and said he should 
need another 1000 men to reach Luck now. To this letter 
Neill replied almost insultingly, which so stung Havelock 
that he advanced again, fought more battles, lost more men, 
and with the consent of his staff again fell back, and re- 
crossed the Ganges on the 13th of August. 

On the 16th he led his men out again to Bithoor, 
attacked 4000 rebels and took two guns. 

Sir Colin assumed command of the army on the 17th 
August and at once telegraphed to Sir James Outram his 
hope that after Eyre's signal success the 5th and 90th regi- 
ments might go on to Allahabad in order to reinforce 
Havelock. 

To Havelock he telegraphed : " The sustained energy, 
promptitude and vigorous action by which your whole 
proceedings have been marked during the late difficult 
operations deserve the highest praise. ... I beg you to 
express to the officers and men under your command the 
pride and satisfaction I have experienced in reading your 
reports of the intrepid valour they have displayed." 

There was no delay now in sending troops to reinforce ; 
no more hesitation in councils, or keeping regiments at 
Calcutta. Sir Colin spared nobody, not even himself: the 
idle and the indifferent, the timid and the boastful, felt the 
lash of his anger and set to work in silence and dismay. 

But for many weeks Sir Colin was unable to leave 
Calcutta, so important was it to organise a relief for Havelock. 

We must now return to this hero, who had fought his 
way so gallantly to Cawnpur with so small a force at his 
disposal. On the 17th of August, the day after he had 
beaten 4000 rebels at Bithoor, Havelock read in the 
Calcutta Gazette that General Sir James Outram had been 
appointed to the command of Cawnpur. 

Perhaps as he sat in his tent pondering on this news, 
his heart may have been wrung with a twinge of regret that 
he could not complete his duty of relieving Lucknow as 
general in command. For now Outram was coming to 

S90 




OUTRAM AND THE TiGER 



Outram had declared that he intended to kill a royal tiger on foot, at which his friends 
laughed. This was no idle boast, for on reaching the spot where a tiger was reported, 
he slipped from the howdah of his elephant, and armed with nothing but a Maratha 
spear, waited until the beaters should drive the brute out. With an angry growj it 
sprang out ; the spear pierced its neck and broke off short, and the tiger was preparing 
for another spring, when a couple of shots from his friend Graham's gun drove it into 
the thicket. 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

supersede him at the critical moment, when reinforcements 
were beginning to arrive. Outram ! His thoughts reverted 
to all he had heard of that brave soldier : how he had made 
a name for himself by his exploits in hog-hunting in Bombay, 
and had been chosen to lead a wing of his regiment when 
only a junior lieutenant, and was nicknamed "the little 
general," because of his inches. How for some years he was 
employed in keeping in order the Bhils, a wild hill-folk, and 
had killed many tigers and earned the gratitude of many an 
Indian mother. 

Outram had declared that he intended to kill a royal 
tiger on foot, at which his friends laughed. This was no idle 
boast, for on reaching the spot where a tiger was reported, 
he slipped from the howdah of his elephant, and armed 
with nothing but a Maratha spear, waited until the beaters 
should drive the brute out. With an angry growl it sprang 
out ; the spear pierced its neck and broke off short, and 
the tiger was preparing for another spring, when a couple 
of shots from his friend Graham's gun drove it into the 
thicket. 

Then he smiled, possibly over the story so often told in 
camp, of Jemmy Outram rolling down a hill in the jaws of a 
tiger, drawing a pistol from his belt and shooting as he and 
the tiger went rolling over down the steep cliff'. Outram, 
it was said, could hear the Bhils lamenting his death, and 
releasing himself from the dead beast, turned to the beaters 
and said, " Quiet, boys ! what do I care for the clawing of a 
cat ! " The Bhils treasured that sentence for many years : 
in those words tears and laughter met so closely together : 
they loved to tell it to their little sons and educate them for 
a life of hunting. Havelock did not care so much for hunt- 
ing, but he recognised that India held too many vicious 
animals, and that a man who for sport had killed 200 tigers, 
with panthers, bears, hogs and buffaloes thrown in, was doing 
a good work for humanity. Outram, he remembered, had 
once had to deal with some queer-tempered camel-men 
from Cutch who had struck work. He assembled them — 

291 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

some 2000 — flogged the leaders and stopped the mutiny in 

a day. 

Outram was at the storming of Ghuzni in 1839, and at 
Kabul, and at the siege of Khelab. Then, disguised as an 
Afghan, travelled far through a dangerous land to carry 
dispatches to Karachi : there he surprised his brother-in-law. 
General Farquharson, who only saw in him a dirty native in 
turban and slippers and native tunic. 

"Well, my man, what do you want here?" said the 
suspicious general. 

" I want a good dinner and a wash ! " 

" The devil you do ! Then, who are you — an English- 
man ? " 

"Why, my good fellow, don't you know Jemmy Outram ?" 

Then Havelock would remember how Outram came under 
Lord Ellenborough's censure, and how Lord Auckland de- 
fended him in the House of Lords, saying, " A more dis- 
tinguished servant of the public does not exist than Major 
Outram." 

Again, how at a dinner given in his honour when he was 
leaving Sind, Sir Charles Napier had called him " the Bayard 
of India, sans peur et sans reprocJie.''^ 

Outram always spoke out freely when he thought things 
were wrong, as in deposing the Ameers of Sind, and he had 
helped in putting down bribery at Baroda. 

He suffered and lost position by many of his chivalrous 
attacks on wrong done in high places. He was once sent to 
Aden, not the most pleasant abode : after Aden he was 
Resident in Lucknow. Then in a short Persian War he won 
the Grand Cross of the Bath. In 1857, Lord Canning 
telegraphed for him to Lord Elphinstone, " for we want all 
our best men here." 

Outram arrived at Calcutta near the end of July 1857, 
and Lord Canning gave him the command of the divisions 
of Dinapur and Cawnpur. But when he heard how Havelock 
had gallantly and heroically led his small force through 
thousands of opposing rebels under Nana Sahib to Cawnpur, 

292 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

his chivalrous heart smote him that he should be superseding 
his old friend. As thus Havelock might have recalled some 
of the passages in his comrade's life, and feeling a little dis- 
appointed at not having the honour to relieve Lucknow, a 
telegram was put into his hands — it was from Sir James 
Outram : "I shall join you with the reinforcements, but to 
you shall be left the glory of relieving Lucknow, for which 
you have already so nobly struggled. I shall accompany 
you only in my civil capacity as commissioner . . . serving 
under you as volunteer." Here was a wonderful self-efface- 
ment ! Outram was surrendering the generaFs share of the 
prize-money — and he was a poor man, — he might also be 
losing the chance of a baronetcy and a big pension ; but he 
did what he thought right. And Havelock, who was a 
deeply religious man, no doubt thanked God for this act of 
Divine Providence, for all his life he had lived as the 
servant of the ^ Most High God. From a small boy at 
Bishop- Wearmouth and later at Dartford in Kent, Henry 
Havelock learnt from his pious mother to take life seriously. 
At nine he went to the Charterhouse and made friends with 
Juhus Hare and Thirlwall, the learned bishop to be of St. 
David's, with George Grote, the historian of Greece, and 
William Macnaghten of Kabul fame, and Eastlake, the artist. 

When Napoleon escaped from Elba, the Danish blood in 
Henry Havelock urged him to enter the army. But it was 
not until 1823 that he got transferred from the Rifle 
Brigade to the 13th Light Infantry and sailed for Calcutta. 

In 1825 he was serving with Sir A. Campbell in Burma, 
where he distinguished himself by coolness and daring, 
storming works, forcing a way through swamp and jungle, 
often knee-deep in water, struggling against malaria from 
Rangoon to Prome, mounting the marble steps of the king's 
palace with bare feet to witness the royal signature to the 
peace. His men, whom he had taught to pray and sing as 
well as fight, were called " Havelock's saints." 

Then came experiences amongst the Afghans with 
Colonel Sale : Quetta, Candahar, Ghuznee called him, and 

293 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

then he had the honour of belonging to the brave garrison 
that held Jellalabad. Later, as lieutenant- colonel, he engaged 
in the Sikh War : Ferozepur, Aliwal, Sobraon saw Havelock 
often in danger, and often, as it seemed to him, miraculously 
preserved. 

Often he was sneered at by empty-headed officers ; but 
when danger to the Empire called for the best and truest 
men, Havelock was sent for, and, as we have seen, led his 
Highlanders of the 78th at Futtehpur and Pandu Nuddi and 
Cawnpur, marching in all that heat 130 miles in seven days, 
fighting four battles and taking twenty -four guns. 

It was not until the 16th of September that Sir James 
Outram reached Cawnpur, bringing Eyre's battery of 
18-pounders : the latter had crushed a body of rebels who 
were intent on cutting Outram's communications. 

Havelock was now strong in artillery, having Maude's 
battery and Olphert's and Eyre's — the whole commanded 
by Major Cooper. 

Leaving some 400 men to hold Cawnpur, the force of 
3179 men set out through drenching rain on the 19th of 
September, and on the 22nd reached the bridge of Bunnee 
which was neither broken down nor defended. Havelock 
bivouacked for the night on the farther bank and fired a 
royal salute to hearten the defenders of the Residency : but 
it was not heard ! On the morning of the 23rd, though 
Lucknow was only sixteen miles distant, they could hear no 
booming of guns. Doubtless, the sepoys were saving up 
their resources to meet the relieving force. 

After a good breakfast, they marched on till they came 
near the Alumbagh, when the guns made play right and 
left and the 5th Fusiliers stormed the wall : the 78th and 
Madras Fusiliers followed, and in ten minutes the Alumbagh 
was cleared. As Outram was cantering back from the 
pursuit near the Charbagh bridge, a dispatch was brought 
him. Outram galloped to Havelock and, baring his head, 
shouted to the soldiers, " Hurrah ! boys — Delhi is at last in 
our hands." Cheer after cheer rose as the news went round : 

294 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

and, though no tents were up and no supper forthcoming, 
they made merry, cheered by their late success and by the 
splendid news. 

On the morrow, after leaving the sick and wounded 
under Major M'Intyre of the 78th in the Alumbagh, at 
half-past eight the advance sounded, Maude's battery in 
front ; and Outram pushed forward to the right to clear 
the Charbagh garden, while the main body lay down till 
Maude's guns had done their work on the earthen rampart, 
seven feet high, which defended the bridge. But the sepoys 
were firing under cover and had made havoc of Maude's 
gunners, so that Maude himself and his lieutenant, Maitland, 
were serving the guns themselves. 

" I say ! " shouted Maude to Havelock's son, who was on 
horseback near, " I can't fight these guns much longer — 
can't you fellows do something ? " 

Young Havelock rode at once to Colonel Neill and 
suggested he should charge the bridge. 

" I can't take the responsibility in the absence of 
Outram : he will be round soon — no, I really can't do it." 

But Outram had been detained in his flank movement : 
the position was critical, something must be done. 

Then the valiant son of a valiant father tried a daring 
ruse : young Havelock rode to the rear out of sight, then 
came galloping back, rode up to Neill and, saluting him, 
said, as though the order had come from his father, " You 
are to carry the bridge, sir." 

Then Neill gave the order to form up : Havelock, Tytler 
and Arnold and twenty-eight men made for the barricade. 
Then a hurricane of missiles opened upon them. 

Arnold fell, shot through both thighs. Tytler's horse 
was killed, and he himself was shot through the groin. 

Only young Havelock and a private named Jakes were 
unhurt : Havelock on his horse waved his sword and called 
on the main body to come on : Jakes stood by his side, 
loading and firing as fast as he could. As Mr. Malleson 
writes : " There they stood, the hero officer and the hero 

295 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

private, for fully two minutes exposed to the full fire of the 
enemy ; and they stood unharmed ! " Then with a wild cry • 
the Madras Fusiliers stormed the barricade and bayoneted 
the rebel gunners where they stood. 

By storming this fortified bridge they had won the 
entrance to the city. As it grew towards evening, Outram 
proposed a halt for the night, but Havelock decided for an 
attempt to reach the Residency. 

Meanwhile, the beleaguered garrison had been painfully 
and pleasurably excited all day : hearing the boom of big 
guns, and the sharp crackle of the rifle-fire. 

On 25th September about 11 a.m. they saw how agitated 
the natives were in town : at 1.30 they saw many leaving 
the city with bundles on their heads : their bridge of boats 
must surely have been destroyed, for they perceived many 
swimming their horses across the Goomtee. Yet still the 
rebels kept up a heavy cannonade. 

At 5 p.m. the Minie-bullet began to whiz over their 
heads ; then they knew their friends were near. 

But would they be repulsed ? their hearts asked for 
anxiety. It is growing dusk, but they can hear and see 
the red-coats fighting their desperate way through street 
and alley. 

Suddenly, all pent-up feelings burst forth like a broken 
weir in a succession of mad, delighted cheers. 

From pit and trench and battery, from behind sand- 
bags and on shattered roofs, and even from the dim 
hospital men rose to cheer. The wounded crawled forth to 
wave a hand, ladies fell on their kne6s and wept with many 
a prayer of thanksgiving for deliverance from the unspeak- 
able horrors that had threatened them. 

Quickly the defences were thrown down, and Havelock 
and Outram and many a hero of lesser note stepped over 
into the grounds of the Residency that had been held so 
staunchly for eighty-seven days. " And ever above the 
topmost roof our banner of England blew." 

Only a portion of the force entered the Residency that 

296 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

night : many lay on the ground and slept peacefully after 
their toils. 

We had 196 killed and 535 wounded ; of the latter 
about 40 were stabbed in their dhoolies or litters on their 
way to the Residency. 

After a brief conference it was decided that no attempt 
should be made to withdraw the women and children to 
Cawnpur : if it had cost them so much to cut their way 
in, what might it not cost to break through the thousands 
of sepoys outside ? In fact, Lucknow had been reinforced, 
not relieved. 

Outram and Havelock and the men had done all that 
men could do : but they had been given an absurdly weak 
force. People at Calcutta had not yet realised how strong 
the rebels were in numbers, equipment, discipline and 
artillery. 

So Outram and Havelock remained in Lucknow : the 
first thing was to find room for the increased force. With 
this view the palaces along the winding river were strongly 
occupied under the command of Havelock. M'Intyre of 
the 78th with 250 men fit for duty and others nearly 
convalescent, held the Alumbagh. The rebels could not now 
fire into the Residency from close quarters, and they made 
no more desperate assaults : they had enough to do in 
repelling sorties and counter-mines from the British posts. 

Outram was busy repairing the defences and erecting 
new batteries during the six weeks which followed. 

On the 9th of October they heard of Greathed's column 
relieving Agra, and of' Sir Colin's proposed march to relieve 
Lucknow. 

Then Sir James looked about for some one who could carry 
a message and plans of the city for Sir Colin's information. 
But he could not bring himself to ask any one to incur 
a risk so great, and which promised almost certain death, 
as hostile masses surrounded them on all sides and guarded 
every avenue. 

But Outram's anxiety reached the ears of Thomas 

' 297 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

Henry Kavanagh, a civil office clerk, and he at once volun- 
teered for the duty. Kavanagh is certainly one of the 
heroes of the Mutiny, and we must devote a few lines to his 
memory. 

At first Outram thought the tall Irishman unfitted for 
the disguise he proposed ; for he was fair and ruddy, and 
his hair glittered like red gold. But Outram found he could 
speak the patois of the country like a native, and he learnt 
how brave he was. This moved Outram, for he loved a 
brave man. ^ 

So Kavanagh had his hair cut short and stained with 
lamp-black, as well as his face, arms, hands and legs. He 
dressed himself as a badmash — a native cut -throat — and set 
out one dark evening on the 9th of November, attended by 
a faithful native who had been employed as a spy on various 
occasions, Kunonjee Lai. 

Both Sir James Outram and Colonel Napier wished him 
God-speed, and Captain Hardinge, as he squeezed his hand, 
murmured, " Noble fellow ! you will never be forgotten.'' 

He passed out from the Residency feeling he was a hero. 
But the very first thing he had to do was to strip and go 
through a stream carrying his clothes on his head. 

The chill took away all heroic feelings for a time. They 
had to dress under a grove of trees, cross the Goomtee twice 
by bridges, and answer several challenges from native sentries. 
Through the streets they tramped without notice, and on 
reaching green fields where every plant was fragrant they 
enjoyed the new surroundings after months of nasty smells : 
they ate fresh carrots and chatted merrily for five miles. 

Then Lai said, " I have lost my way, sahib." 

They were in the Dilkoosha Park, and it was occupied 
by the enemy ! 

But they got through safely and spoke to several peasants 
in the fields. Wet shoes and sore feet troubled Kavanagh ; 
he often fell and hurt himself: once a woman got out of 
bed to show them the way. By three o'clock they reached 
a grove of mango trees and heard a man singing. As they 

298 



THE RELIEVERS OF LUCKNOW 

drew near he called out a guard of sepoys, who began to ask 
a torrent of questions. These men they satisfied, and their 
next adventure was to fall into a jheel, or swamp, when they 
had to wade waist-high for two hours. 

After a rest they crossed a plain, dodged more sentries, 
met villagers fleeing with their chattels on buffaloes from 
the terrible English soldiers : then they slept for an hour. 

After this as they entered a grove, " Who comes there ? " 
was uttered in native dialect. Another sepoy guard ? 

No ! there were too many voices ! Lai thought they must 
be British. 

" This sahib is an English officer," he stammered in his 
fright. 

Silence ! suspicion ! incredulity ! 

Then the Sikh commander came forward and shook 
hands with Kavanagh, and he knew that after all his perils 
and fears he was safe ! " Rash ! very rash ! but plucky ! "" 
said the Sikh, and gave him two sowars as escort to the 
camp. 

Lieutenant Goldie of the 9th Lancers gave him dry 
clothes, and Captain Dick of the 29th Foot lent him his 
Burma pony and showed him the way to Sir Colin's tent. 
What a relief it was to feel safe ! 

The full account of Kavanagh's perilous journey has 
been given by him in How I Won the Victoria Cross (Ward, 
Lock & Co.). 

We have seen how Sir Henry Norman met the disguised 
messenger at the entrance of the tent, and suspecting him 
of some treachery, half drew his sword before Kavanagh 
cried, " I come from Lucknow — from Outram and Havelock 
— with important plans of the city for Sir Colin." 

Sir Colin was immensely glad to see him, and spent some 
hours in his company working out his route so as to avoid 
the narrow streets which had proved so costly in Outram's 
case. 

Kavanagh, who knew the city well, remained with Sir 
Colin's force and directed the advance. The Home Govern- 

299 



HAVELOCK AND OUTRAM 

ment rewarded this Irishman with the Victoria Cross and 
some substantial gifts. He died in St. Thomas' Hospital in 
1883. 

The success of Sir Colin Campbell in safely withdrawing 
the women and children from Lucknow was saddened by 
the illness and death of the gallant Havelock. Dysentery 
had worn him to a shadow, but he had tried to do his duty 
to the last. 

He died in the Dilkoosha Palace as the army was retiring, 
and General Outram had only a few minutes to spare, to 
bid his old comrade a last good-bye. 

Sir Colin, in a general order, conveyed to the army his 
last tribute : " His march of this year from Allahabad to 
Cawnpur, his frequent victories gained over immensely 
superior numbers, when he was nearly without artillery and 
cavalry . . . concluded by the onslaught and forced entrance 
into Lucknow, have established a renown which will last as 
long as the history of England." 



300 



CHAPTER XIV 

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL : THE HERO OF 
THE QUEEN 

THIS famous Scot was born in Glasgow on the 20th of 
October 1792 : he was not a Campbell by his father's 
side, but a Macliver : and though his father was a 
carpenter, yet Colin Macliver was an aristocrat by birth. 
His splendid fight for recognition and promotion is one of 
the proofs of the value of hereditary qualities. 

Colin's grandfather, the Laird of Ardnave, in the island 
of Islay, west of the Clyde, had forfeited his estate by 
taking part in the Forty -five rebellion: thus the Mac- 
livers had come down in the world. His mother, Agnes 
Campbell, was a daughter of a respectable family who had 
settled in Islay two centuries ago with their chief, the 
ancestor of the Earls of Cawdor. 

Colin was the eldest son, and had one brother and two 
sisters : his uncle. Colonel John Campbell, took an interest 
in the boy, and after Colin had spent a few years at the 
High School in Glasgow the colonel removed him to 
Gosport — the Royal Academy. 

When only fifteen and a half years old Colin was taken 
by his uncle to be introduced to the Duke of York at 
the Horse Guards. The Duke, supposing the boy to be 
" another of the clan," as he remarked, entered him for a 
commission in the 9th Regiment of Foot as Colin Campbell. 
Upon leaving the Horse Guards the boy said : " Uncle, 
the Duke has put me down by a wrong name." 

" No, laddie : the name of Campbell will be a rare good 
name to go by in the army : dinna fash yourself aboot it 

301 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

at all." Thus it was that Colin Macliver was always known 
as a Campbell. 

On the 26th of May 1808, Colin received his commission 
of ensign, and within five weeks he was promoted to a 
lieutenancy in the same regiment. Colin's after pro- 
motions were not so speedy, for that was the time of 
winning promotion by a long purse, or by interest with 
noble families : the boy did not possess these advantages, 
and only very slowly did he emerge from obscurity. 

Thus Lord Raglan was a colonel at twenty-seven ; 
Colin Campbell did not attain that rank until he had 
served twenty-seven years : bitterly did he feel the promo- 
tion over his head of inferior soldiers who had never heard 
a shot fired in warfare. 

It was a stirring time when Colin Campbell first joined 
the British Army : Napoleon had placed his brother Joseph 
on the throne of Spain ; Junot was ruling in Lisbon under 
Napoleon's orders ; but the Spaniards misliked the attention, 
and, calling on England for help, they rose in arms against 
their foreign master. The Portuguese followed suit, and 
Wellesley had just sailed from Cork to the Peninsula in 
July 1808 for six years' hard fighting before they succeeded 
in driving the French armies over the Pyrenees. 

Campbell was posted to the 2nd battalion of the 
9th, commanded by Colonel Cameron, whom he soon 
learnt to like and admire. They took ship at Ramsgate 
on 20th July, and Campbell reports in his journal for the 
19th of August, " lay out that night for the first time in 
my life "" : this was on a sandy beach at the mouth of the 
Maceira. We may note that all through his life Colin 
Campbell preferred to bivouac in the open with his men 
and live on the same fare as they did : this was one secret 
of his popularity. On the very first day after landing, 
Campbell's battalion was under a fierce fire from Laborde's 
guns at Vimiera. Campbell's captain, an officer of years, 
seeing the extreme youth of the Scottish boy, called him to 
his side, took him by the hand and led him by the flank of 

302 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

the battalion to the front, where he walked with him up 
and down the front of the leading company for several 
minutes in full view of the enemy's artillery, which had 
begun to open fire on our troops. He then let go the hand 
of the fifteen-year-old boy and told him to join his company. 
The captain intended to give the youngster confidence, but 
the lesson might have had a different result. 

However, Sir Colin in after years, when he told the story, 
added : " It was the greatest kindness that could have been 
shown me at such a time, and through life I have felt 
grateful for it." 

After the battle of Vimiera and Junot's defeat the 
French agreed to leave Portugal by the Convention of 
Cintra, and Campbell was transferred to the 1st battalion 
near Lisbon : he now was under Sir John Moore, and after 
the advance to Salamanca was in the terrible retreat to 
Corunna with Soult in pursuit, in the middle of winter. 
One officer and one hundred and forty-eight men of his 
battalion died on the road from exhaustion, or were made 
prisoners : Sir Colin used to relate how he had to march 
with bare feet for some time before reaching Corunna, as the 
soles of his boots were completely worn away. When he 
got on board ship he could not take off* his boots, as from 
constant wear the leather stuck so closely to the flesh of his 
legs that he was obliged to steep them in hot water and 
have the leather cut away in strips — a process rendered 
painful by the coming away of pieces of skin. The 
battalion on its return was stationed at Canterbury. 
In six months' time they joined the forces of the Earl of 
Chatham which were preparing to advance up the Scheldt, 
attack Antwerp, and destroy the French fleet moored under 
its walls. 

Under General Montresor the 1st battalion landed on 
the island of South Beveland, opposite that of Walcheren. 
While waiting for the fall of Flushing over one-sixth of our 
troops died of malarial fever : the expedition was a costly 
failure, and Colin Campbell, as well as hundreds of others, 

303 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

brought away the seeds of "Walcheren fever," which 
assailed them at periods to the end of their Hves. After 
this Campbell was sent back to the 2nd battalion, then 
stationed at Gibraltar, and fought in a severe engagement 
at Barossa (1811), under Sir Thomas Graham. As all the 
other officers were wounded, this boy had to command the 
two flank companies, and gained some praise. In 1813, 
Campbell was, to his delight, under Lord Wellington on 
the lower Douro, when with 70,000 men he turned the 
French positions and drove them towards the Pyrenees. 

He writes, after a long pursuit of the enemy on the 18th 
of June : '* The ground on which we skirmished was so 
thickly wooded and so rugged and uneven, that when we 
were relieved ... I found myself incapable of further 
exertion from fatigue and exhaustion, occasioned by six 
hours of almost continuous skirmishing." 

Campbell, we must remember, was not yet twenty-one 
years old. His next battle was Vittoria, in which the 
French lost guns and treasure, stores and papers, and many 
Frenchmen retired in rags with bare feet. Then came the 
investment of San Sebastian, situated on a peninsula jutting 
out into the sea: here Campbell distinguished himself in 
the capture of a redoubt and convent and was mentioned 
in dispatches. Later, in a hopeless attempt to storm 
through a breach, Campbell was twice wounded, but still 
pressed on. 

Napier in his History writes : " It was in vain that 
Lieutenant Campbell, breaking through the tumultuous 
crowd with the survivors of his chosen detachment, 
mounted the ruins — twice he ascended, twice he was 
wounded, and all around him died." 

Campbell's wounds prevented him from sharing in the 
glory of the last and successful assault on San Sebastian : but 
the hospital could not keep him long ; for he and a brother- 
officer, hearing that a battle was imminent, deserted from 
hospital and limped after their regiment, getting a lift now 
and then from commissariat wagons, till they waded the 

304 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

Bidassoa, and with the 9th invaded France, assailed the steep 
Croix des Bouquets and won the position. 

Napier writes : " At this moment Colonel Cameron arrived 
with the 9th Regiment, and rushed with great vehemence to 
the summit of the first height." At last the French, appalled 
by the furious shout and charge of the 9th, gave way, and 
the ridges of the Croix des Bouquets were won as far as the 
royal road. 

Colin commanded the light company in front, and was 
again severely woimded : this occurred on the 7th October 
1813. 

His colonel reprimanded him for his breach of discipline, 
but he could not refrain from a word of praise for his 
gallantry. On the 9th of November, Colin Campbell was 
promoted to captain, without purchase, in the 60th Rifles. 

He returned home with the strongest recommendations 
to the Horse Guards ; but he was " nobody " at present, and 
instead of getting staff employment, took a temporary wound- 
pension of dfi'lOO a year, which helped him in his straitened 
circumstances. For a time Colin found a home with his 
uncle. Colonel Campbell, who interested himself in trying to 
procure his nephew a staff appointment in Holland, but in 
vain. 

Seeing no prospect of serving in Holland, Campbell 
applied for leave to join his regiment in Nova Scotia, where 
a force had been collected in view of hostilities against the 
United States. But his wounds incapacitated him for duty, 
and he left Halifax in July 1815 for London : here he 
renewed his pension, and was advised to seek health in the 
south of France. 

After some months'* stay at Aix he rejoined the 60th at 
Gibraltar, and remained there until, in November 1818, his 
battalion was named for reduction, and Captain Campbell 
was transferred to the 21st North British Fusiliers, serving 
at home. 

In April 1819, Campbell embarked for Barbados, whither 
the 21st Fusiliers had preceded him : here he was under 
u 305 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

the command of Lord Combermere, to whom he was 
warmly recommended by Lord Lynedoch, his ever-constant 
friend. 

The years from 1819 to 1826 were passed by Cohn 
Campbell in the West Indies, first in Barbados, then in 
Demerara. The climate and a vigorous constitution enabled 
him to shake off* much of the Walcheren fever, and he en- 
joyed the pleasant society of the islands. When General Sir 
Benjamin d'Urban succeeded General Murray, Campbell 
became brigade-major, and the two officers lived in the 
closest intimacy and friendship. 

In November 1825, Campbell purchased his majority : a 
friend in the colony lent him £600, and he borrowed =£'200 
from his agents. As he was sending his father £4iO every 
year, the expense of a field- officer's outfit fell heavily upon 
him : he once or twice thought of throwing up the service 
in despair, as many a good and poor officer had been com- 
pelled to do before ; but, luckily for his country, he listened 
to the advice of his friends, pocketed his Scot's pride and 
accepted his friend's loan of £600. Campbell now had to 
leave Demerara and join the depot in England. General 
Shadwell describes his appearance from a portrait taken at 
this period. 

" A profusion of curly, brown hair, a well-shaped mouth 
and a wide brow, already foreshadowing the deep lines which 
became so marked a feature of his countenance in later years, 
convey the idea of manliness and vigour. His height was 
about five feet nine, his frame well-knit and powerful ; to an 
agreeable presence he added the charm of engaging manners, 
which, according to the testimony of those who were familiar 
with him at this period, rendered him popular either at the 
dinner- table or in the drawing-room." 

Fair, curly-haired, pleasant-mannered, and known to be 
brave, even to rashness — no wonder the slender-pursed officer 
made his way amongst those who valued the man above his 
clothes. 

Once when dining with Dr. Keate, the Eton headmaster, 

306 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

a guest suddenly asked Colin Campbell in a pause of the 
conversation — 

" How did you feel, sir, when you led the forlorn hope 
at San Sebastian." 

With a little sarcastic laugh the soldier replied — 

" Very much, sir, as if I should get my company if I 
succeeded." 

His interrogator could get no more out of the model 
major, and regretted his somewhat blunt inquiry. 

After a few months' service in Ireland, Colin Campbell 
was able, through the kindness of a relation on his mother's 
side, to purchase an unattached lieutenant-colonelcy. 

On the 5th October 1832, Lord Fitzroy Somerset wrote 
to say that on his lodging c£^1300 in the hands of his agents. 
Lord Hill would submit his name to the King. So, after 
serving for twenty -five years on full pay, this exceptionally 
good officer was enabled to buy his promotion ! 

But what of those officers who had no rich friends to 
help them ? George Bell of the Royals, a friend of Colin's, 
possessed the Peninsular War medal, with seven clasps for 
seven pitched battles. He had since fought in India and 
Burma : but whereas Campbell was a lieutenant-colonel in 
183S, Bell was still a captain in 1839 ! As Campbell had 
no duties, being unattached, he went off to Antwerp, to 
watch the siege conducted by Marshal Gerard. He kept an 
accurate journal of the operations for the Horse Guards, and 
was thanked by Lord Hill. When Antwerp and the Dutch 
capitulated, Campbell went to live in Marburg, and studied 
German. 

In 1834 he was back in London, asking for a regiment, 
and always being politely put off: his means were small, his 
hopes low, his expenses too great ; yet he felt he must be 
near the Horse Guards. 

In his journal he writes : " It has been a sickening time 
to me ; and what makes it more disagreeable is the little ap- 
pearance, even after twelve months of misery, of such a 
termination as would be satisfactory." But his time came 

307 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

in May 1835, when he was offered the command of the 
98th. 

From Captain Henry Eyre, Colonel Campbell learnt the 
minutest details concerning this regiment : he resolved to 
train his regiment on the principles laid down by Sir John 
Moore and practised at Shorncliffe : by this method the 
officer grew to be the friend and protector of his men : 
gradually they became so intimate, and trusted in each 
other's honour so confidently, that the men would follow their 
officers willingly on the most desperate ventures. 

Yet Campbell was no gentle sentimentalist : he was never 
slow to wrath when events stirred him ; and sometimes, 
indeed, his anger blazed out, and his Highland blood boiled 
and his grey eyes flashed dangerously for very little incite- 
ment. 

We have seen already how he savagely rebuked the 
officer at the Cawnpur bridge for saying, " We are at our 
last gasp."" Another occasion of like sort was when, in the 
last attack on the rebels before Lucknow, a famous colonel 
came to him flushed with victory and carrying a flag he had 
torn from the grasp of the foe. Sir Colin turned fiercely on 

the gallant officer, and shouted, "D you, sir! what 

business have you to be taking flags ! go back to your men."" 

The staff officers looked wistfully at the poor colonel, as 
he retired crestfallen and surprised : they pleaded for him 
after he had gone, and the anger vanished and passed into a 
more generous mood. That evening Sir Colin asked the 
colonel to dine with him in his tent, and begged his pardon 
for his hasty rebuke. Stories like these teach us more about 
a man than many pages of subtle analysis. 

But the slack officer and the drunken soldier found no 
sympathy in this hot-blooded chief: for he never spared 
himself and he expected all to do their duty without fail. 
He insisted on economy in the officers' mess, knowing that 
the expenses of a soldier's life often led to gambling or 
resignation. 

For more than two years the 98th served in the northern 

308 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

district of England, and it was during this period that Colin 
Campbell taught his men to advance firing in line — a difficult 
movement with the old muzzle-loader, and one which he 
found useful in later days. 

In December 1841, the 98th embarked on the Belleisle 
for China, 800 strong : they were all in good health, but the 
ship was overcrowded, and on joining the force under Sir 
Hugh Gough in their red coats and thick European clothing, 
the hot sun struck them down, and cholera and fever turned 
them into invalids. Within ten days of landing at Chin- 
kiang near the river estuary, fifty-three men had died, and 
the ship was becoming a floating hospital. 

In a letter to his sister written in December, the colonel 
says: "The regiment has lost by death up to this date 
283 men, and there are still 231 sick, of whom some 60 
will die." 

In those days less attention was paid to health than now : 
but the Japanese have shown us how important it is to shield 
troops from the incompetence of men in authority : we have 
still much to learn. At the end of 1842 Campbell became 
commandant of Hong-Kong: here he learnt that he had 
been made Companion of the Bath and Aide-de-camp to the 
Queen. Later he got leave to remove the remains of his sick 
regiment to the island of Chusan, where the air was bracing. 
Campbell kept his men busy and active, with sham fights in 
the open country : but it was long before they could strike 
off the effects of the disease. Ague made the colonel irri- 
table and melancholy : after a year and a half in Chusan he 
wrote : " I have only one thought and one wish left, and that 
is for repose ; for my spirit has already been sufficiently 
broken by disappointment ; and as all whom I wished to 
please have sunk into the grave, success or miscarriage in the 
struggles of professional life have become empty sounds." 

In July 1846, Campbell received a letter of thanks from 
the Chinese Commissioners for his kindness and liberality 
towards the Chinese, and in his journal of 24th July writes : 
"Took a walk on shore in the evening — my last walk in 

309 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

Chusan, where I have passed many days in quiet and peace, 
and where I was enabled to save a little money, with which 
I hope to render my last days comfortable. I have been 
able also to assist others to a great extent : altogether I 
have every reason to be grateful to God for sending me to 
such a situation." 

The 98th landed at Calcutta in October 1846, and 
marched to Dinapur, where the colonel heard he was 
appointed brigadier to command at Lahore. It was a great 
wrench to leave the regiment, and his health was drunk at 
mess with warmth and cordiality. 

On his way to Lahore, Campbell met the Governor- 
General, Lord Hardinge, who described Henry Lawrence, 
the Resident in the Punjab, as " the king of the country, 
clever and good-natured, but hot-tempered."" The two hot- 
tempered men became great friends. 

But Campbell had not been long at Lahore before the 
rebellion of Moolraj broke out at Multan, and then the 
Sikh War occurred. At Chilianwallah, while Campbell was 
leading a charge on the Sikh guns, a gunner rushed at him, 
tulwar in hand, and gave him a deep sword-cut on his right 
arm. Before this the Sikh gunner had fired and apparently 
missed. But next morning Campbell found that the bullet 
had smashed the ivory handle of a small pistol which he 
carried in his waistcoat pocket, and had also damaged his 
watch. 

The pistol and the watch saved Colin Campbell for other 
fights. At the end of this campaign Campbell heard from 
Sir Charles Napier that he had been promoted to be a 
Knight of the Bath. "No man has won it better: may 
you long wear the spurs." The next three years Sir Colin 
was Warden of the N.W. Frontier, having under him the 
98th and 61st. 

In dealing with the turbulent tribes Sir Colin leaned to 
the side of mercy, for he hated burning villages and ex- 
terminating families. Lord Dalhousie, that imperious 
Governor-General who took all knowledge for his province, 

310 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

and could not brook any to cross his wishes, sent a formal 
censure of Sir Colin to Peshawur. " You have manifested 
over- cautious reluctance in advancing against the Swat 
marauders." 

Sir Colin wrote to Sir William Gomm, who had 
succeeded Napier as commander-in-chief : " I have come to 
the conclusion that I should be wanting in what is due to 
myself, were I, after what has passed, to continue in this 
command. . . . There is a limit at which a man's forbear- 
ance ought to stop." 

And to Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Colin wrote : "I have 
put a restraint upon myself, of which at one time in my life 
I should not have been capable : I feel it is safer for me, 
and better for the public service, that I should not have 
longer to continue the eiFort. Remember me to John : he 
must not quarrel with me." Lord Dalhousie in his pride 
had accused Sir Colin of placing " himself in an attitude of 
direct and proclaimed insubordination to the authority of 
the Governor-General in Council." 

What Archibald Forbes calls " the barbed and venomous 
insinuation " which underlay the words " over-cautious 
reluctance" was modified a little by Lord Dalhousie's 
dispatch in which he acknowledged Sir Colin's "personal 
intrepidity and sterling soldierly qualities." 

Lord Gough was censured for losing so many men against 
the Sikhs ; Sir Colin for taking measures to preserve his 
men ! Sir Charles Napier wrote Campbell a sympathetic 
letter, casting ridicule on the attempt of Dalhousie to direct 
a frontier campaign from Calcutta : " You have saved your 
column, and for this you are abused ... it was a foolish, 
ill-judged and most unmilitary operation, and I said all 
along that the Government were lucky in having a real 
soldier to command it, and save their army. You have 
done so, and I think you have every reason to be proud of 
having, like a wise commander, conducted an ill-judged 
operation in a masterly manner." 

General Napier's kind letter gave the wounded brigadier 

311 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

great comfort, and he thanked his friend for the expression 
of approval from one whose opinion was to him " almost 
like the Creed." On his return to England Sir Colin 
resigned the command of the 98th, and went on half- pay. 

He was sixty-one, and longed for a rest after forty-four 
years' hard service : but it was not to be, for England and 
France had formed an alliance in defence of Turkey against 
Russia ; and in March 1854 war was declared. 

Lord Raglan was appointed to the command, and Sir 
Colin was nominated to a brigade command. 

With Major Sterling his brigade- major, and Captain 
Shadwell his aide-de-camp, he embarked for Constantinople 
on the 3rd of April. Here he learnt that he was appointed 
to the Highland Brigade, which consisted of the 42nd, 
79th, and 93rd regiments. This was the first time that 
Campbell, a Highlander himself, had commanded High- 
landers. But the men took to him at once, regarding him 
rather as the chief of a clan than an ordinary commanding 
officer. 

In August 1854 they embarked at Varna for the Crimea. 
In writing to his sister about the Alma, Sir Colin says : 
" Here I lost my best horse — a noble animal. He was first 
shot in the hip, the ball passing through my sabretasche, 
and the second ball went right through his body, passing 
through the heart. He sank at once ; Shadwell kindly 
lent me his horse, which I immediately mounted." 

He did not tell her how he had led three battalions 
against twelve Russian battalions, the elite of the Tzar's 
troops : but he did tell his friend. Colonel Eyre, something 
of the struggle, the firing while advancing in line, the 
marching over rough ground, the successive attacks, and 
the emotion of Lord Raglan when the battle had been 
fought and won. 

" He sent for me : when I approached him I observed 
his eyes to fill and his lips and countenance to quiver. He 
gave me a cordial shake of the hand, but he could not speak. 
The men cheered very much . . . they had behaved nobly. 

312 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

I never saw troops march to battle with greater sang-froid 
and order.*" 

Kinglake tells us that as the Brigade of Guards was 
about to cross the river on CampbelFs right they were ex- 
posed to fire of artillery, and some officer shouted, " The 
Brigade of Guards will be destroyed ! Ought it not to fall 
back?" 

The Highland blood flew up, and Sir Colin replied, 
"It is better, sir, that every man of Her Majesty's Guards 
should lie dead on the field than that they should turn 
their backs upon the enemy." 

This is Kinglake's version : but those who knew Sir 
Colin remarked that his language would have been stronger 
and franker. 

On the 16th of October, Lord Raglan gave Sir Colin 
the command of the troops and defences covering Balaclava 
harbour, the British base of operations : 1200 marines 
landed from the fleet in the harbour held the line of 
batteries : the 93rd were in camp at the head of the gorge, 
and an exterior chain of redoubts was garrisoned by Turks ; 
but they had only nine guns to work with. On the 23rd, 
General Laprandi led 24,000 Russians to assault these re- 
doubts : after a gallant resistance the Turks fell back and 
rallied on either flank of the 93rd. 

As the Russian cavalry charged against Lord Lucan's 
division, one body consisting of some four hundred men 
turned to their left and charged the 93rd. This 
charge Sir Colin awaited calmly in line — "the thin red 
streak tipped with a line of steel." Sir Colin was quite 
conscious that the protection of the post depended on his 
kilted men, with a few guns of the marine artillery ; as he 
rode along the face of his regiment, he told his men how 
grave the occasion was. " Remember, there is no retreat 
from here, men ! You must die where you stand." 

A loud and cheery answer warmed his heart : " Ay, ay, 
Sir Colin ; we'll do that and a\" 

The cavalry charge was no sooner repulsed by the 93rd 

313 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

than they stood spectators of the Scots Greys — the heavy 
brigade — slashing their way fiercely through the grey-coats 
of the Russian troopers. How intense was their gaze, as, 
panting from their recent exertions, they followed the 
movements of the great mass of Russians, dividing, meeting, 
wavering, and then breaking into clusters before they 
turned their horses'* heads and fled in wild disorder. 

Scarlett's troopers heard the ringing cheer, the wild yell 
of delighted mountaineers — as they rode back in triumph. 

Then Sir Colin rode forward to greet the Greys and 
congratulate them. 

" Greys, gallant Greys ! " he cried, " I am sixty-one years 
old, and if I were young again I should be proud to be in 
your ranks." 

A general order from the commander of the forces was 
read, in which Sir Colin and the 93rd Highlanders were 
thanked for the brilliant manner in which they had repulsed 
the enemy's cavalry. 

Sir Colin's anxiety night and day was so tense and con- 
tinuous that he only took sleep by snatches, and he was 
ever going round in the dark and examining the posts and 
redoubts. 

On December 5th the Russian field-army withdrew 
from the vicinity of Balaclava, and then Sir Colin undressed 
and went to bed. 

But in his dreams he started up and shouted, " Stand to 
your arms ! " startling the officer who shared his room. 

The French General Vinoy and Sir Colin became great 
friends, and worked together loyally on many occasions : for 
Sir Colin could speak French fluently. 

In the terrible winter that followed, when our troops 
were ill-housed and ill-clothed, it was Lord Raglan who got 
all the blame in the English papers. As to this Sir Colin 
wrote to Colonel Eyre : " I am disgusted with the attacks 
that have been made upon dear Lord Raglan. God pity 
the army if anything were to occur to take him from 
us!" 

314 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

In May 1855, Sir Colin was disappointed by the removal 
from his command of the Highland Brigade, which was now 
sent on the expedition to Kertsh. A second disappoint- 
ment was his in the Highland Brigade not having been 
chosen to take a prominent part in the final assault on 
Sebastopol. 

Sir Colin acknowledged the noble defence made by the 
Russians, their skilful withdrawal from the city, and their 
care of our wounded in the great Redan. " Indeed," he 
says, "before the Russians left the Redan some of our 
wounded were carefully dressed by them and placed in safety 
from the fire of our own shells.*" 

Sir Colin had saved Balaclava by his unremitting ex- 
ertions and skilful formation of trenches and redoubts : 
officers averred that it was he and his Highlanders who won 
the battle of the Alma ; yet the newspapers at home were 
clamouring for the promotion of younger men, and Lord 
Panmure, the War Minister, yielded to the ignorant 
clamour, and, through General Simpson who had succeeded 
Lord Raglan, offered Sir Colin Campbell the Malta 
command. 

So a second time the brave and cautious Scot was re- 
quested to give up his command. He was now by virtue 
of seniority second in command, and Simpson was about to 
retire. 

The irascible old general felt the slight and winced 
under the blow, but before he left the Crimea he carried 
out one more cautious scheme in the face of authority. 

General Parke, who commanded the 72nd Highlanders, 
tells us : " The example he set us all of every military 
quality, pre-eminently that of care and forethought in all 
that appertained to the welfare of those under him, can 
never be forgotten." 

He goes on to say that the Highland Division in the 
autumn of 1855 was encamped near the south shores of the 
Crimea, but still under canvas ; the cold was increasing, 
and the men would suffer. 

315 



SIR COLIN CAMPBELL 

Sir Colin heard of a ship laden with huts having come 
into harbour, and he at once rode over to headquarters and 
applied for them. 

"No transport available — very sorry — but if you can 
obtain transport, your application may be entertained/' 

" Vary weel ! " thought the canny Scot, and galloped off 
to his camp, ordered out all his regiments in fatigue-dress 
and marched them down to Balaclava. 

Piece by piece the brawny Highlanders carried the huts 
upon their shoulders, to the astonishment of many a smart 
linesman : captain and subaltern, sergeant and private — all 
shared alike in the work with right goodwill and merry 
quip : in a very short time these Northerners were com- 
fortably hutted for the winter. 

Then, with a moving speech of " Farewell " to his men, 
Sir Colin sailed for England on 3rd November, and three 
days later Sir William Codrington was nominated to the 
chief command. 

" I have come home to tender my resignation," said 
Sir Colin to his friend Lord Hardinge, now commander-in- 
chief, and Lord Hardinge, we may be sure, gave him his 
warmest sympathy. \ 

There was another who had watched his career with 
admiration and valued his services more highly than her 
Ministers. 

Queen Victoria promptly invited General Campbell to 
Windsor. There both the Queen and the Prince Consort 
received him with such gracious attention that all sore- 
ness, all angry feeling was dispelled from his mind, and 
he frankly spoke out : " Your Majesty, I am willing to 
return to the Crimea and serve under a corporal if you 
wish it." 

So oiF he went again to the Crimea, staying at Paris 
long enough to be presented to the Emperor and Empress, 
and to have a pleasant evening with his Crimean friend. 
General Vinoy. 

Once more he was given the Highland Division, but in 

316 



THE HERO OF THE QUEEN 

April 1856 peace was proclaimed : Sir Colin told his troops 
he was going home and should never serve any more. In 
this changing world a "last farewell" often leads to a 
renewing of love. 

In part from General Shadwell's Life of Clyde, by kind permission 
of Messrs. Blackwood. 



S17 



CHAPTER XV 

LORD CLYDE: THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

IT was not until 11th July that tidings of the death of 
General the Hon. George Anson reached the War 
Office. 

On that afternoon Lord Panmure sent for Sir Colin 
Campbell and offered him the chief command in India. 

" I accept it," said Sir Colin, not in the least surprised. 

" When will you be ready to start ? " said Lord Panmure. 

" To-morrow ! I can get my outfit in Calcutta." 

Sir Colin was sixty-five ; his soldiers called him " Old 
take care ! " 

Lord Dalhousie and Lord Panmure had both deemed 
him too cautious ; but when Britain was in danger, the 
Queen pointed to the man. 

Sir Colin left London by the night train after being 
bidden to Buckingham Palace. In his journal he wrote : 

" Her Majesty's expressions of approval of my readiness 
to proceed at once were pleasant to receive from a Sovereign 
so good and so justly loved." 

In Paris he took breakfast with his "dear old friend 
General Vinoy " ; and reaching Marseilles on the 14th July, 
he embarked on the Vectis, which was awaiting him with 
its steam up. 

On the 13th of August the new commander-in-chief 
landed at Calcutta. General Sir Patrick Grant met him, 
and Lord Canning invited him and his military secretary, 
Major Alison, to stay at Government House. 

We may here quote a few lines on Sir Colin from 
Holme's history of the Mutiny : " He had not the wonderful 

318 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

dash, the power to put everything to the hazard for a 
great end . . . which belonged to some other well-known 
leaders of that time. Yet for any work requiring methodical 
and precise movements, extraordinary care for details, few 
were better fitted. . . . No commander-in-chief more 
acceptable to the mass of Anglo-Indian officers could at 
that moment have been selected. Many of them already 
knew his appearance well — his strong spare soldierly frame, 
his high rugged forehead crowned by masses of crisp grey 
hair, his keen, shrewd but kindly honest eyes, his firm 
mouth with its short trim moustache, his expression 
denoting a temper so excitable yet so exact ; so resolute 
to enforce obedience yet so genial ; so irascible and so 
forgiving." 

As Sir Colin had to wait at Calcutta until S7th October, 
he had time to gather up the threads of what had occurred. 
We know from previous chapters most of the events : 
Havelock, v;ith less than 2000 men, had fought his way 
from Allahabad to Cawnpur, but arrived just too late to 
save the women and children. Then his gallant attempt 
to relieve Lucknow failed in August, and he had to fall 
back on Cawnpur. 

But the country between Calcutta and Cawnpur was 
seriously disturbed : Allahabad, placed on a tongue of land 
at the junction of the Ganges and the Jumnah, had been 
the scene of a revolt of sepoys on the 6th of June. Many 
officers were shot, and the rest, with sixty-five invalided 
white soldiers and some sepoys, took refuge in the fort. 

Fortunately the senior officer on the spot, Lieut. 
Brasyer, who had been promoted from the ranks for 
gallantry in the Sutlej campaign of 1846, saw from the 
looks of the sepoys in the fort what he must do. He 
promptly, with the help of some Sikhs, disarmed the rebels 
and drove them from the fort. 

Allahabad was saved by Colonel Neill on the 12th of 
June, though he had only a few men under him. Thus 
one of the most important cities in India was saved by 

319 



LORD CLYDE 

Brasyer, still only a lieutenant, and Neill of the 1st Madras 
Fusiliers, both true heroes of the Mutiny. 

But there were two other weak points between Calcutta 
and Allahabad : namely, Dinapur, 344 miles distant from 
Calcutta, and Patna, which was twelve miles nearer to 
the capital. 

The commissioner, William Tayler, had preserved the 
province from revolt by his splendid energy and foresight. 

Colonel Malleson says in his History : " His services have 
never been acknowledged, he has been treated with 
contumely and insult, but he contributed as much as any 
man, in that terrible crisis called the Indian Mutiny, to 
save the Empire." 

We must not forget William Tayler when we recall 
the brave heroes who fought for Britain and her Empire 
in those troublous days. 

There were 3000 disaffected sepoys at Dinapur, and 
Tayler asked the authorities at Calcutta if he might 
disarm them. It was most important that this should 
be done, because reinforcements could not be sent to 
Havelock with this danger left in the rear. 

Lord Canning, Sir Patrick Grant, and Mr. Halliday, 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, hesitated. The leading 
merchants sent a deputation to Canning, stating that a 
favourable opportunity now occurred for disarming the 
sepoys. Canning listened, and curtly replied, " I cannot 
comply with your request." 

Later they threw the responsibility of the disarming 
on General Lloyd; if he thought it desirable, he might 
take that step ! 

On the 25th of July, Lloyd took away their percussion 
caps. Three hours after the sepoys broke out into open 
mutiny and started westward in the direction of Arah. 
No attempt was made to stop them. 

They marched to Arah, opened the gaol, plundered 
the treasury and hunted for Europeans. But Vicars Boyle, 
a civil engineer, had provisioned and fortified his house, 

320 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

foreseeing the catastrophe which Canning and his advisers 
had neglected to prevent. With fifteen EngKshmen and 
fifty Sikhs, sent by William Tayler, this heroic band 
resisted sternly on the 27th, 28th, and 29th ; then came 
a lull in the fighting : the- sound of firing was heard in 
the distance ! But Dunbar, sent by Lloyd with 415 men 
at Taylor's instigation, had fallen into an ambush, and 
only fifty-three were left alive. 

The effect of this repulse at Patna and Dinapur was 
alarming : the whole province would rise and all would be 
massacred. 

But another unknown hero started up. Major Vincent 
Eyre of the Artillery. This man had served in the first 
Kabul war and had been kept there a prisoner : since then 
he had served in Gwalior and Burma. He was bringing a 
battery on a steamer from Calcutta to Allahabad, and had 
reached Dinapur on the evening of the day on which the 
mutineers had gone off to Arah. 

Next day he went up the river, persuaded Captain 
d'Estrange to bring 150 men of the 5th Fusiliers, and 
started for Arah. 

Thereby he risked his commission, for his orders were to 
proceed to Allahabad, and a march to Arah was fifty miles 
out of his way. But Eyre risked all that, and with 220 
men and 3 guns and 40 gunners he set out on the 31st of 
July, a fortnight before Sir Colin landed at Calcutta, and 
at his first halt the news came to him of Dunbar's defeat. 
That made no difference : next day they came within six 
miles of Arah, and found the rebels entrenched in a wood. 

By fierce bayonet charges and flank movements and good 
gun-fire, the British at last drove the enemy from cover. 
Eyre pressed on, hoping to be in Arah that night : but a 
raging torrent stopped them, and they spent the whole 
night in making a causeway. Next morning they crossed the 
torrent, entered the city and rescued the brave little garrison, 
which for eight days had defied an enemy fifty times more 
numerous than themselves. 

X 321 



LORD CLYDE 

But some of the rebels had fled to the stronghold of 
Kenwar Singh, a disaffected landholder : this fort Eyre 
stormed and captured on the 11th of August. 

In a moment the despair of the British residents in 
West Behar was changed into unexpected relief, hope, and 
even triumph. Such is the magic of brave deeds done by a 
heroic soldier. 

Eyre's action was of course upheld by the Indian Govern- 
ment : what would have been dealt to him if he had been 
unsuccessful, we better not inquire. For William Tayler, 
who had done so much to save his province, was removed 
from his office and ruined ; he had advised his subordinates 
to bring all their men and treasure to Patna before Vincent 
Eyre's arrival : and was deemed at Calcutta to have been 
acting too much on his own initiative ! 

But the failure of the Government to disarm the three 
regiments had wasted a month and prevented Havelock 
from reaching Lucknow with any chance of success. 

Sir Colin must have been encouraged by the stories that 
came to Calcutta of British pluck and patient resistance in 
many quarters : but he was full of business troubles, 
buying up stores and sending small reinforcements to 
Allahabad. 

The men went by bullock-train, which took ninety daily : 
they had their knapsacks and blankets with them, ammuni- 
tion and rifles. They travelled day and night, halting only 
for two hours at noon. Food was scanty, but the men were 
eager to get to the front. 

" I am delighted with Lord Canning," wrote Sir Colin ; 
" he has never looked black at any event which has occurred. 
He is such a nice person to do business with. Very clever 
and hard-working . . . with the highest courage, so simple 
and gentlemanly ; and so firm and decided that I cannot be 
too thankful for the good fortune which has placed me 
under such a chief." 

In October, Sir Colin received a letter from Sir John 
Lawrence, in which he wrote : " We have indeed had a 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

terrible storm : and it is only, I am persuaded, by the mercy 
of God that a single European is alive on this side of India. 
At one time I began to think that all must be lost. We 
have now, as far as I can judge, weathered the gale ; but 
until the troops arrive from England, our position must 
continue to be precarious ... I only know that Havelock 
has done nobly. In fact he and his troops have exceeded 
all our hopes and expectations. I was rejoiced to see that 
Outram did not supersede Havelock . . . my brother's 
death has indeed been a great calamity. There were few, 
perhaps none, who would have proved more useful with his 
counsel and experience than he." 

On the night of the 27th of October, Sir Colin, attended 
by the headquarters staff, left Calcutta by rail for Ranigunj. 

Then he went on by carriage-dak up the Great Trunk 
Road, and a terrible catastrophe nearly occurred. 

For as they drove along some peasants held up their 
hands and cried out, " Stop, sahib ! sepoys all in front ! " 

" Nonsense ! " said one of the officers, " I can't believe 
that." 

" There they are, sahib ; some of them on elephants." 

Then the Englishmen saw through their glasses nine 
elephants crossing the road about 1000 yards ahead. 

Sir Colin was in the second carriage, and word was sent 
to him to stop, as some 400 mutineers were ahead. 

The carriages in the rear heard an exaggerated rumour 
and a panic seized the drivers, who turned round to flee : 
one carriage was upset in the act of turning. Two officers 
got upon country ponies and galloped back for the nearest 
detachment. 

All the time Sir Colin was quietly tracing the route of 
the mutineers on the map. Fortunately these gentlemen 
had no idea they were so near to the commander-in-chief 
and continued calmly on their way. The headquarters staff 
prudently drove back some miles, and then with a proper 
escort retraced their steps in the cool of the evening. So 
what might have been a tragedy came to be regarded as a 

323 



LORD CLYDE 

comic interlude. At Allahabad, Sir Colin heard that Outram 
could hold out in Lucknow till the end of November : this 
gave him some satisfaction and a few spare days to complete 
arrangements. On 3rd November they reached Cawnpur, 
and remained a few days to forward the Engineer park. 

But to a cautious general like Sir Colin, who liked to 
make war according to rule and principle, the state of 
affairs was very disadvantageous. For his line of com- 
munications from Allahabad to Cawnpur was threatened 
by the Gwalior Contingent and other rebel bodies who 
were concentrating at Calpi on the Jumna, forty miles only 
from Cawnpur. He knew that his first duty should have 
been to clear this line of communication ; but the call of 
Lucknow seemed imperative, and he had no alternative 
but to leave Cawnpur open to attack by superior numbers. 
However, he did all that was possible to strengthen the 
post of Cawnpur, as it covered the bridge of boats, his 
only line of retreat from Lucknow. Early on the morning 
of the 9th, Sir Colin left Cawnpur and reached the camp 
of Buntera after a forced march of thirty-five miles. Here 
he met his old friend, Hope Grant, and placed him in 
divisional command of the force. 

On the morning of the 10th, Kavanagh came into camp 
with his attendant native : and some hours were spent in 
working out the safest route to the Residency. It was 
resolved to give the city a wide berth this time and swerve 
away to the right. A letter written in Greek character 
was sent to Outram : "I have come only to hand out the 
wounded, women and children." Outram was to make all 
preparations for their departure on the 16th. In the 
afternoon Sir Colin reviewed his troops in brigades, ad- 
dressing each separately : as we have stated before, when 
the war-worn, anxious commander had reviewed the 9th 
Lancers, the Sikh horsemen in their loose dress and red 
turbans, the 8th and 75th Queen's worn with fighting, with 
never a word or cheer from any — he rode on to his old 
Crimean friends, Highlanders of the 93rd, a massive body 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

of veterans in tartan and waving plume : and then there 
burst forth such a rapturous welcome as took all the lines 
from his face and gave him strength for his mission. 

" Aye, aye, Sir Colin ; well bring the women and bairns 
cot o' Lucknow, or we'll leave oor ain banes there.'' 

We will not dwell at length on the fortunes of war in 
this second relief of Lucknow : it has been given in a 
former chapter. On the morning of the 14th of November 
they reached the Dilkoosha Park, and then on to the 
Martiniere College they forced their way helped by Travers' 
heavy guns. 

Next day, by the advice of Kavanagh, Sir Colin chose 
a long detour to the right, approaching the Secundrabagh 
by the open ground near the river. 

The latter part of their way lay through a narrow lane, 
where the cavalry got jammed, and Sir Colin rode to the 
front and thrust them in his impetuous way into the side 
alleys of the village : then he ordered up the 18-pounders 
to batter a breach in the south-west bastion of the 
Secundrabagh. 

While three companies of the 93rd were clearing the 
Serai of the enemy, the rest of the infantry were lying 
down behind an embankment. At the end of an hour a 
Sikh native officer, without waiting for the order, sprang 
up sword in hand, his men following. The Highlanders 
followed, and it became a race who should get into the 
Secundrabagh first. Some say that Sir Colin called to 
Colonel Ewart, "Ewart, bring on the tartan," and then 
they dashed from behind the bank. 

Many were killed as they crept through the narrow 
breach, and for hours the conflict raged ; 2000 sepoys were 
found slain. We must remember that these soldiers had 
recently seen Cawnpur and the house of massacre, and had 
heard all that gruesome story. So they never dreamt of 
taking prisoners : the only penalty was death. After the 
Secundrabagh came the Shah Nujeef, a great mosque and 
tomb : this was held so strongly in spite of Peel's gun-fire 

325 



LORD CLYDE 

that once more Sir Colin had to call upon his Highlanders. 
But a high wall loopholed brought them to a standstill, 
and the fire of the rebels was making havoc with the 
regiment and Sir Colin's staff when Sergeant Paton of the 
93rd came running up to Colonel Hope saying, " I have 
found a breach, sir, near the river." 

Sergeant Paton was the hero of the Shah Nujeef. It 
was by his plucky examination of the defences that the 
mosque was taken. The relief of the Residency, which 
before had been very uncertain, now seemed assured. The 
men lay down to rest and sleep, and next day, the 17th, 
Captain Wolseley, the Field-Marshal, attacked and took 
the mess house, and Lieutenant Roberts, V.C., our Field- 
Marshal and honoured General, raised the British flag on 
the top of the Mo tee Mahal, the signal that our troops were 
near the Residency. 

It was now that Outram and Havelock crossed an open 
space half a mile wide intervening between the Motee Mahal 
and the Residency, though they were exposed to fire from 
the Kaiserbagh. Indeed three of their staff were wounded 
during the transit. Warm greetings were exchanged, and 
plans quickly proposed. 

Sir Colin was firm in his resolve to waste no time in 
getting back to Cawnpur to meet the Gwalior Contingent 
and guard the bridge across the Ganges. But, said he, we 
must take back the wounded, the women and children, and 
the garrison. Five days were occupied in making prepara- 
tions, and the whole British force simply held the positions 
they had won, like a vast outlying picket. 

At midnight of the 22nd the garrison filed out from the 
Residency in the deepest silence. The rebels never suspected 
what was doing ; before dawn they had all reached the 
Martiniere in safety. 

We have already seen how Sir Colin hurried back to the 
bridge, crossed the Ganges, and heartened Windham's 
garrison by his presence. It was a narrow escape for both 
forces. Windham had been beaten back to his fortified 

326 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

camp at Cawnpur by Tantia Topee, after a march of six 
miles down the Calpi Road to attack the rebels. On the 
morrow Windham saw the bungalows at Cawnpur all in 
flames, and the clothing and stores left by Havelock's force 
being burnt. 

Sir Colin was only just in time to prevent the bridge of 
boats from being destroyed by placing Captain Peel's heavy 
guns to cover the crossing. He placed his convoy of women 
and children near the riddled walls of Wheeler's encampment, 
and spent two days preparing for the dispatch of his large 
convoy to Allahabad. He sent them off on the night of the 
3rd of December, and then turned his attention to the 25,000 
rebels in front of him. 

These rested their centre on the town, being separated 
from the British force by the Ganges Canal. Their right 
was covered by limekilns and mounds of brick ; their left 
rested on the Ganges. 

Sir Colin had with him 5000 infantry, 600 cavalry, and 
thirty-five guns ; with this force he attacked the rebels on the 
6th of December. 

During the days of waiting our men had been chafing 
and fretting at the delay, while the enemy kept bowling 
round-shot into the camp. But the cautious Scot was 
making victory secure for them, planting heavy gun batteries 
to command the canal bridges. 

Early in the morning Sir Colin called the commanding 
officers together and explained his plans with clearness from 
a written paper. All knew that only one week's supplies of 
food were left in camp, and that no more could be procured 
unless the rebels were beaten ! But the men were like grey- 
hounds straining on the leash ! 

Greathedwas directed to make a false attack on the centre, 
whilst Walpole, Hope, and Inglis turned the enemy's right. 
These latter drove the rebels from mound to mound despite 
a fierce resistance. At length they reached a bridge strongly 
fortified and held by artillery. There was a long and 
terrible struggle, the 4th Punjab Rifles and the 53rd 

327 



LORD CLYDE 

gallantly attempting to carry the position. All of a sudden 
a rumbling was heard, and up came William Peel and his 
sailors, dragging a heavy 24-pounder, placed the gun on the 
bridge, and opened fire. 

The British cheered again and again as the rebels fell 
back under the storm of shot : and then with a shout High- 
landers, Sikhs, and 53rd dashed at the foe and drove them 
back in wild disorder. 

At this moment Lieutenant Bunny, H.A., rode back at 
a gallop and shouted to Captain Bourchier, " Come along ; 
they are bolting like the devil.'' 

Away rattled the battery of field-guns along the Trunk 
Road. The infantry made way for them, as if so many fire- 
engines were coming, and after galloping a mile and a half 
they saw the rebels' camp, and at four hundred yards poured 
round-shot into the fl3'ing masses. 

Major Turner rode up and ordered, "Go to grape 
distance." 

Again the battery limbered up and at two hundred yards 
range poured a shower of grape into the camp. 

Bourchier writes : " The men were yelling with delight. 
They actually stood upon the gun-carriages as we advanced. 
The drivers cheered, and such a scene of excitement was 
never known." Then Sir Colin himself rode up to the 
battery and said, " Well done, my men, well done. Now go 
hot in pursuit of the rascals." 

" Hurrah ! Hurrah ! we are on their track. Gun after 
gun is passed and spiked, cartloads of ammunition lie 
strewed along the road ; Pandies are bolting in all 
directions." ^ 

Without a check that battery pursued for two miles, Sir 
Hope Grant and his staff riding in the dust behind. 

Four times they came into action after that, to clear 
front and flank. Then General Grant said, "We are 
getting too far away from our supports. Halt ! Wait till 
the cavalry come up." 

^ Bourchier's Eight Months' Campaign^ Smith Elder & Co. 

328 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKNOW 

The cavalry had been taken by their guides far too much 
to the left, and only arrived late. But ten minutes'* rest for 
the horses did good service ; for, highly trained though they 
were and in racing condition, the pace had been killing. 
With lowered heads and frames shaken by the quick panting 
of exhausted lungs they awaited the next call upon their 
stamina and muscle. And the gunners rubbed them down 
and spoke cheery words to them. 

Presently a small cloud of dust was seen on their left 
coming nearer and nearer : it is lost in a grove ; soon the 
head of a cavalry column appears — they arrive: a quick 
order is given. Like lightning the horsemen spread over 
the plain at a gallop and in skirmishing order ; Sir Colin is 
riding at the front. One might have thought it was a fox- 
hunt, and indeed more than one fox did break cover, and 
the men merrily roared out a " View halloa " : so they rode 
on for fourteen miles, catching whom they could and making 
many prizes. 

So at last came the defeat of that Gwalior Contingent 
that had given Sir Colin so much anxiety and nearly wrecked 
his plans. Sixteen guns, 350 cartloads of ammunition, huge 
stores of grain, tents, bullocks, etc., fell into our hands. 

The return to Cawnpur was rendered almost comic by an 
offer made to the men of three rupees for every bullock the 
men could bring in. So the guard left at Cawnpur saw three 
or four pairs of bullocks tied at the tail of each gun, while 
the Lancers were driving their prisoners before them in 
hundreds, lowing as they went. 

The next few weeks were spent in defeating rebel rajahs 
in Rohilkhand ; but Lord Canning strongly insisted on 
Lucknow and Oudh being brought to subjection before any 
other attempts were made to sweep Rohilkhand. 

By the 23rd of February 1858, Sir Colin had collected 
near Bunnee, 17 battalions of infantry, 28 squadrons oi 
cavalry, 54 light and 80 heavy guns. 

Outram at the Alumbagh had been left alone for some 
time after the last severe handling by Sir Colin of the sepoys 

329 



LORD CLYDE 

at Lucknow. But the Maulavi, one of the chief authors of 
the Mutiny, was now in Lucknow, and made two or three 
attacks which Outram repelled, though it was said that the 
rebels had 100,000 men to Outram's 4000. 

We need not dwell again on the storming of Lucknow, 
which was carried out so gallantly with the help of Outram 
at the cost of 800 of all ranks. At this time Sir Colin 
received a letter from the Queen written by her own hand, 
thanking him for his devotion, and the troops for their 
gallantry. 

After his next clearance of Rohilkhand in June, Sir 
Colin retired to Allahabad, where he found a letter from 
Lord Derby : " Her Majesty deems the present a fitting 
moment for marking her high sense of your eminent brilliant 
services by raising you to the dignity of a peer of the United 
Kingdom." 

Sir Colin was disposed to run restive at strange titles, 
but was at last reconciled to the honour : though he con- 
tinued to sign his letters to friends as before C. C, and not 
Clyde. 

When he met the 93rd, of which he was colonel, the first 
time after becoming Lord Clyde, he called the pipe-major 
to the front. John MacLeod saluted, saying, " I beg your 
pardon. Sir Colin, but we dinna ken hoo tae address you noo 
that the Queen has made you a Lord ! " 

The chief replied, with a touch of humorous sadness, 
" Just call me Sir Colin, John, the same as in the old times : 
I like the old name best." 

Mr. Russell relates a story of Lord Clyde — an incident 
which he witnessed in the campaign in Central India in 
December. It was dark and cold : the men had made 
blazing fires of straw and grass in houses lately occupied by 
Nana Sahib's followers. 

" At one of these fires, surrounded by Beloochees, Lord 
Clyde sat with his arm in a sling (his horse had fallen with 
him) upon a native bed. Once he rose to give an order, 
when a tired Beloochee flung himself on the crazy charpoy, 

330 



THE SAVIOUR OF LUCKT^OW 

but was jerked off by an indignant comrade with the loud 
exclamation, ' Don't you see, you fool, that you are on the 
Lord Sahib's charpoy ? ' Lord Clyde broke in, ' No — let him 
lie there ; don't interfere with his rest,' and himself took his 
seat on a billet of wood." 

It was not until June 1860 that the old general 
was able to sail home, after taking a touching farewell of 
Lord Canning. Everybody now, from the French Emperor 
to the Court of the City of London, was eager to 
welcome the man who had saved India at the cost of the 
fewest lives possible. There was no more talk of being 
over- cautious, or too old : honours were poured upon him : 
in November 1862 he was promoted to the rank of field- 
marshal. His last appearance at the head of troops was on 
Easter Monday 1862, when he commanded 20,000 men. 
His health had begun to fail, and he died at Chatham on the 
14th of August 1863, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Fifty years of arduous service had raised him from a 
carpenter's son to the peerage, but he always remained a 
simple, God-fearing Scot, beloved by the rank and file of his 
army. 



331 



CHAPTER XVI 

SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI : THE AVENGER 

OF CAWNPUR 

AMONGST the heroes who fought, schemed, or held 
command during the Indian Mutiny the fame of Sir 
Hugh Rose, Baron Strathnairn, is not so well known 
as many who did far less than he. 

Lord Derby, speaking in the House of Lords, 19th April 
1859, said : " In five months the Central India Field Force 
traversed 1085 miles, crossed numerous large rivers, took 
upwards of 1 50 pieces of artillery, one entrenched camp, two 
fortified cities and two fortresses, fought sixteen actions, 
captured twenty forts." 

One historian has described Sir Hugh Rose as " far in 
advance of any of the other commanders in genius, tact, 
judgment and energy." He recovered Central India, from 
the borders of the Western Presidency to the Ganges, acting 
in a difiicult country entangled with wild jungles, hills and 
forests, and studded with forts strongly defended. He 
pressed on relentlessly, allowing the enemy no breathing 
time; and without his strenuous support. Lord Clyde's 
campaign would have required another two years of fighting 
to end the Mutiny. 

Hugh Henry Rose was born in Berlin in the year 1801. 
His father was Sir George Rose, G.C.B., British Minister at 
the Prussian Court : here young Rose was educated and in- 
structed in the rudiments of the military art. 

In 1820 he entered the British Army, and serving in 
Ireland with tact and ability during the Ribbon disturbances, 
was rewarded by receiving his majority at an early age. 

332 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

Later, he served in Malta, being in command of the 
92nd Highlanders ; and, when cholera broke out among his 
troops. Colonel Rose visited every man who fell ill and 
buoyed the sick up by his cheerful and sympathetic 
manners. 

For his services with Omar Pasha's Brigade in Syria 
against Mehemet Ali and the Egyptian army, he received a 
sword of honour, and was made a Companion of the Bath. 
Frederick William of Prussia also sent "his former young 
friend " the Cross of St. John of Jerusalem. In his case, no 
doubt, powerful friends and money helped Rose to rise 
quickly from the lower ranks of officers to the higher. Soon 
after, he was appointed British Consul-General in Syria. It 
was no easy post at that time, because Christian Maronites 
and Mahommedan Druses were constantly flying at one 
another's throats. On one of these occasions, in 1841, Rose 
galloped between the opposing lines, held up his hand and 
stopped the conflict. 

At another time he saved the lives of 700 Christians, 
and led them safely to Beyroot, walking himself most of the 
way, so that his horse might be at the disposal of any over- 
tired woman. 

In recognition of these services in Syria, Lord Palmerston 
in 1851 appointed Colonel Rose to be Secretary of Embassy at 
Constantinople. During his time here, when acting as Charge 
d' Affaires in the absence of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, he 
learned that the Russians were demanding that the Sultan 
should sign a secret Treaty, giving to the Czar the pro- 
tection of all the Christians in Turkey. 

The Grand Vizier came to the colonel and said, " We 
must sign the secret Treaty to-night unless you can 
summon the British Fleet to Turkish waters." 

" I will write to Admiral Dundas and point out the 
gravity of the situation," said Colonel Rose. 

Soon after sunset the Porte's chief Dragoman visited 
Colonel Rose at Therapia and informed him that Prince 
MenschikofF had presented his demand for their signature, 

333 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

but that relying on the approach of the British Fleet they 
had refused it.^ 

Here was a firm and able man acting on his own responsi- 
bility and stopping the panic which was endangering the 
independence of the Ottoman Empire. If Colonel Rose 
had been backed up by Her Majesty's Government, there 
would probably have been no Crimean War. 

When that war was declared on the following year, 
Colonel Rose was appointed Queen's Commissioner with 
the French army, having the rank of brigadier-general. 

Rose distinguished himself both at the Alma and 
Inkerman — was recommended by Marshal Canrobert for 
the Victoria Cross. 

He received the thanks of the French general and of 
Lord Clarendon for his tactful address and helpful advice 
tendered to the French commanders, and on his return 
home was made a Knight of the Bath and a Commander 
of the Legion of Honour. 

So far General Rose had shown himself full of activity 
and resource : he never spared himself, if he seldom spared 
his subordinates : perhaps he was prone to be impatient of 
others' defects, and did not consider men's feelings when he 
had fault to find. But his officers and men ever found him 
just and generous. 

The Duke of Cambridge having given General Rose a 
division in the Bombay Presidency, that general reached 
Bombay in September 1857, and was at once placed in 
command of a field force with instructions that he was to 
march to Kalpi through Central India and thus relieve the 
pressure on Lord Clyde. 

At that time the Gwalior contingent held Kalpi, while 
the brave and pitiless lady, the Rani of Jhansi, was holding 
a large tract of country, comprising 1600 square miles, 
round her fortress, and was the mainspring of the Mutiny. 

It is necessary to say a few words about this Indian 

^ Clyde and Strathnairn, Rulers of India, by General Sir O. T. Biirne 
(Clarendon Press). 

334 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

heroine, who with the Nana Sahib and the Maulavi, or 
" learned man " of Oudh, seem to have conspired together to 
rouse the sepoys to mutiny. The Nana, as we have seen, 
was made our enemy by being unjustly treated, as he and 
his friends thought, by Lord Dalhousie. 

It was much the same brusque treatment which turned 
a gracious and gifted Indian princess into an implacable 
Fury. 

Her husband died childless in 1854, and according to 
Hindoo law the Rani possessed the right to adopt an heir. 
This right Lord Dalhousie curtly refused and proclaimed 
that Jhansi had lapsed to the Company. 

The Rani argued eloquently against this, pleading the 
services rendered by the rulers of Jhansi to the British in 
the past. 

It was all in vain : the little fiery Scot brushed away her 
arguments and her pleadings, little thinking what grave 
consequences were to follow, and what was the power of an 
injured woman. The Rani of Jhansi, burning to revenge 
this insult, yet nursed her anger quietly until the seizure of 
Delhi warned her that the time for action was come. 

Then, in June 1857, she won over the sepoys stationed 
at Jhansi, and persuaded the English officers and their 
families to accept her protection ; they were 67 Englishmen 
with their wives and children. A solemn procession was 
formed of these victims, headed by ulemas and fanatics 
and followed by the leading townsfolk : as they paced 
along these natives sang verses of the Koran, and repeated 
the refrain, " No mercy shall be shown to Giaours." 

There walked the Resident, Captain Skene, doubtless 
knowing the bitterness of the hour, if the children did not. 
When they reached the ruins of an old mosque the proces- 
sion was halted. The men were carefully separated from 
the women and children ; the Afghan mercenaries and 
sepoys kept the ground lest any should escape, and the 
butchers of the city were bidden to go in and hack the 
doomed unbelievers to pieces. 

335 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

It was this massacre which prompted General Rose and 
his men to strain every nerve to reach and capture Jhansi's 
strong fortress. 

Sir Hugh Rose's force consisted of two brigades — the 
first under Brigadier Stuart of the Bombay army; the 
second under Brigadier Stewart of the 14th Light Dragoons. 

There were many deficiencies to be met : supplies were 
scarce ; the batteries were short of horses and men ; the 
siege artillery was very inefficient for making breaches. But 
Sir Hugh Rose made every one hurry up, in spite of heat 
and fever ; he began by punishing revolt in Indore and early 
in January started for the relief of Sagar. 

On the 7th of January it was found necessary to disarm 
the Bhopal contingent. We can quote from an unpublished 
diary written by Lieutenant J, Bonus of the Royal Engineers : 
" As I command the sappers and miners I went to a council 
to discuss the disarming. . . . 

" About 7.80 a.m. of the 8th, the infantry and cavalry 
of the Bhopal contingent were ordered to march through 
the camp, to the surprise of those not in the secret. The 
dragoons and artillery were at stables, and the 3rd and 24th 
were strolling about. But no sooner were the contingent 
gentlemen clear of camp than a change came very rapidly 
over the scene. In a few minutes the dragoons were mounted 
and the guns horsed. The infantry fell in armed with ball. 
Great must have been the surprise of the late mutineers to 
see cavalry, guns and infantry between them and their 
village. 

" The contingent infantry were ordered to pile arms ; 
which they did. They were then marched some fifty yards 
from their arms, and the 3rd Europeans marched up to the 
piles. 

" Next the cavalry were ordered to dismount, when their 
horses were led away. But these men on being ordered to 
give up their swords, refused. Mayne asked for a company 
of Europeans to compel obedience. But the brigadier said, 
' ril give you something better than that.' 

336 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

" He at once ordered the artillery to prepare for action 
in front of the dismounted men. ' Trot, march ' — ' action 
right ' — ' with grape load ! ' 

" No sooner was the order given than the mutineers put 
down their swords. Each man had his uniform stripped off." 

Often the men began their march at 2 a.m. Once the 
headman of a village was impudent to an officer and re- 
ceived two dozen lashes. Bathing and snipe-shooting relieved 
the monotony of the march at intervals, and alarms of sharp- 
shooters in the jungle kept men awake. 

On the 24th they sighted Rhatghur at 2 p.m. on the 
top of a steep hill. Between them and the fortress was a 
river with a stony bed, which the horse artillery and 
dragoons had to cross. They were under fire from the 
enemy concealed amongst trees at the foot of the hill. 

On the S5th, General Rose and his staff went on a re- 
connoitring expedition, as was his wont; for he liked to 
discover for himself the best way of attacking a stronghold. 

On the ^Gth, the guns and howitzers shelled the fort 
until dark. 

On the 27th, Lieutenant Bonus was ordered to examine 
a round tower near the walls, but when it had been seized it 
was found useless, and the men were withdrawn. 

On the 28th, a battery was opened on the face of the 
fort which soon made considerable breaches. 

On the 29th, up at 7 a.m. While at breakfast news came 
that the fort had been evacuated during the night. I walked 
into the fort through a breach and saw over the place. 
There were very few bodies about, and very little loot, 
merely some ponies, camels and horses. The rascals had 
escaped down an almost vertical precipice by the aid of 
ropes. Two had been killed in the descent. We shall never 
catch these fellows ; they always manage to get away. They 
did the same thing before; they will never wait till the 
breach is practicable. It was an awful cliff down which 
they escaped." 

Lieutenant Bonus was left to blow up the gates while 
y 637 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

the Force marched for Barodia, a strong village in a dense 
jungle. 

Here the Rajah of Banpur was entrenched and lost 500 
men in the resistance he made. Captain Neville, R.E., who 
had gone untouched through the Crimean War, was killed 
by a round-shot close to the general. 

The besieged garrison at Sagar had been shut up for 
eight months anxiously expecting relief, and feeling sick at 
the delay : but at last they heard Sir Hugh Rose's guns 
bombarding Ratghur ; then a rider came and signalled that 
relief was coming. The investing force melted away and 
Sir Hugh's troops on 3rd February marched through the 
city in a long line. 

The natives stared in wonder at a European regiment 
and the 14th Dragoons and the siege-guns drawn by ele- 
phants — while the ladies and children of the garrison 
officers waved a glad and thankful welcome. 

"The Europeans in Sagar were uncommonly glad to 
see us. The Bengal 31st Native Infantry was there and, 
wonderful to say, had not mutinied ! 

" We had a fine time there : our dandies went peacocking, 
but they could only muster one tall hat among them, so they 
took that in turns ! On the 6th, we had a grand parade 
. . . the general said, ' I don't believe you have a full dress 
among you.' 

" On the 9th we had to cross the Beas : I was extremely 
astonished to find an excellent suspension -bridge over the 
river. Considering that we were in the jungle this was an 
extraordinary sight. The man who built this bridge dug 
up the iron on the spot, smelted it and forged his bars then 
and there. All honour to him ! he was a clever fellow. The 
heavy guns and elephants were directed to cross the river 
by a ford ; but it is said that they crossed the bridge. 

" On the 10th I had a weary day — in the saddle with 
Sir Hugh till 8 p.m. : there was some skirmishing and we 
had a few men wounded. To wind up. Sir Hugh asked 
me to dinner — a kind cruelty ! " 

338 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

Some 25 miles east of Sagar was Fort Garhakota, where 
the mutinous 51st and 52nd Bengal Regiments had estab- 
lished themselves. This was taken on the 13th February 
after a hot march through dense jungle. 

Lieutenant Bonus says : " The enemy evacuated the fort in 
the night : things had been made rather hot for the rebels 
with the big howitzer : our shells had killed many men — 
the place has large supplies of food." 

Then follows in the diary a sad story, in which Lieutenant 
Dick, Royal Engineers, shows a rare chivalry, to be rewarded 
only by arrest and loss of his command. 

"25th — A most unhappy incident has occurred just 
now : a native of the Bombay Sappers and Miners named 
Maun was tried on the 22nd by a native district court-martial 
on the charge of attempting to pass out of Fort Garha- 
kotah a camel laden with sugar, ghee, rice, flour and one 
matchlock — with intent to injure the Prize Agents. The 
man was found guilty and sentenced to fifty lashes. 

" Dick, who now commands the Sappers, believed that a 
great injustice had been done by this finding and sentence; 
he wrote to the brigade-major and advised the sapper to 
appeal to Brigadier Stewart for a new trial by a European 
court. Accordingly when Maun was paraded for punish- 
ment on the 24th he appealed to the brigadier for a fresh 
trial. 

"The brigadier was furious and dismissed the parade, 
saying to Dick, ' We may thank you for this. Lieutenant 
Dick.' 

"Soon after the parade Dick was placed under arrest 
and I was placed in command of the Sappers. 

"Maun was tried by a general European drum-head 
court for mutiny and disobedience of orders : he was found 
guilty, sentenced to seven years'* hard labour and to be 
marked with the letter M : also to forfeit all property to 
Government. 

" This morning, 25th, Maun was flogged before the whole 
brigade. The impression made upon me by the whole un- 

339 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

happy business is that the authorities behaved with exceed- 
ing harshness, even cruelty ! I doubt very much whether 
Maun was guilty in the first instance : I gather that he had 
nothing to do with the loading of the camel, that he did 
not know what was on it : he was casually asked by a 
soldier to take the camel outside the fort and complied in 
all innocence ! '' 

We may state that two separate accounts written by 
surgeons and published agree with this: the surgeon on 
parade refused to brand the letter M on Maun. 

" S7th — Dick has been reprimanded before all the officers 
of the Brigade, released from arrest but deprived of his 
company. The command was offered to me, but I refused 
it on the ground that duties as Assistant Field Engineer 
occupied all my time. Goodfellow also declined: Fox of 
the Madras Sappers accepted the command. . . . Dick is 
in very low spirits." 

The diary now describes the taking of a small fort, for 
Sir Hugh's energy omitted nothing : the forcing of a pass 
through the hills and the jungle fights and retreats: a 
hungry day with no food and plenty of strong language 
when the tents were at last pitched. 

" 5th March — To-day the first bugle was sounded at 3 
a.m. : I cannot imagine why the general insists on turning 
out the men at this dreadful hour ! 

« gth — Dick and I made a plan of Marowra fort : then 
we shot twelve couple of snipe and two brace of quail." 

Sir Hugh pressed on to Jhansi, often marching all night, 
taking a fort here and blowing up the palace of an insurgent 
there, until they came near Jhansi on the 20th. 

The fortress stands on a high rock and is built of solid 
masonry, guns peeping from every elevation. 

The city is four and a half miles in circumference and is 
surrounded by a massive wall, eight feet thick : 11,000 men 
formed the garrison, and the brave lady who inspired them 
took no mean part in the defence : for she and other women 
assisted in repairing the havoc made in the defences by the 

340 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

hot fire of seventeen days. Sir Hugh Rose was engaged 
from sunrise to sunset, reconnoitring and placing the siege 
batteries, as he had no plan of the city or map of the 
country. To the east of the city was a picturesque lake 
and a palace of the old rajah's : on the south side were the 
ruined cantonments of the British troops. 

Sir Hugh never wasted a moment. He wrote to Sir Colin : 
" The great thing with these Indians is not to stay at long 
distances firing : but after they have been cannonaded, to 
close with them." 

Day and night a heavy fire was kept up on the fort and 
Mamelon, and the native women in the city were ever busy 
working at the repairs. By 30th March the defences of the 
fort and city had been dismantled and the enemy's guns 
mostly disabled. 

Sir Hugh made arrangements to storm Jhansi on the 
next day, but news came of the advance of Tantia Topee 
with a large force of 20,000 men : flags were flying from Sir 
Hugh's observatory, a signal of danger, and an immense 
bonfire on the Jhansi side of the river Betwa was received 
with shouts of joy from the walls. 

Sir Hugh might well have quailed under such a danger, 
but he at once resolved to fight a general action with the 
new foe while he still pressed on the siege of Jhansi. 
During the evening of the 31st he moved all the men he 
could spare to meet Tantia Topee. 

Next morning Tantia Topee made a vigorous attack, 
feeling certain of an easy victory over the few English. 

But Captain Lightfoot's battery and the charge of the 
14th Light Dragoons forced the enemy to break and retire 
in confusion. Then they fired the jungle : but through 
smoke and fire our field battery galloped and opened fire as 
the Indians were recrossing the Betwa: the pursuit was 
continued until dark, and stores, siege guns and materials 
of war fell into our hands : Tantia Topee had lost 1500 
men and was in full retreat for Kalpi. 

Meanwhile the fire on the breach was redoubled, and 

341 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

Sir Hugh determined that, whether the breach were practic- 
able or no, Jhansi should be taken on the 3rd of April. 

On the evening before. Sir Hugh sent for Lieutenant 
Dick, and said : " You have rendered yourself liable to a 
court-martial, sir : but I have heard of your high promise 
and good qualities and I cannot subject you to a punish- 
ment which would be ruinous to your career and deprive 
you of the honour of the assault. I therefore pardon you, 
and I know you will do your duty to-morrow." 

General Bonus, then Lieutenant, says in his diary : — 

" On the night of the Snd April orders came round very 
late, but neither Dick nor I was detailed for any duty. 
We both, however, decided that we would be in the game 
somehow. 

"3rd April. At S.30 a.m. the sappers left camp with 
Brown, Fox, Goodfellow, Meiklejohn and Dick. I did not 
move until 4 a.m. and then went down to the right attack, 
where I found the staff in the advanced battery. The 
ladder party with Fox and Brown was just approaching the 
wall, and it was very plain that things were not going well. 
I ran out and joined the party to help as far as I could. 

" Fox and I managed to get a double ladder placed, but 
with much difficulty : for the ground was very rough, the 
wall high, the ladder heavy and too short, and the iire of 
the enemy incessant and well directed. 

" As soon as the ladder was ready, I called to the Europeans 
of the storming party to follow me, and mounted : but only 
one man would at first venture. He and I went up side by 
side on the bamboo double ladder. At the top we had an 
unpleasant time ; as many men on the wall as could crowd 
in front of us hacked away at us. But they were so anxious 
to protect themselves with their shields that they could 
hardly see what they were doing : my sword was chiefly 
used to ward off their cuts, and I was so busy with my right 
hand that I quite forgot the revolver in my left. 

"The soldier alongside of me used his bayonet freely, 
but I don't think he did much damage. However, this 

342 




The Storming of Jhansi 

Lieutenant Bonus, supported by only one man, mounted a double ladder of bamboo, 
and for some time was hacking, thrusting, and parrying blows, until a rebel with his 
clubbed rifle hurled him to the ground. Alihough he had a revolver in his left hand 
he was so busily engaged that he forgot to use it. 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

little game soon came to an end. I was dimly conscious 
of a man well to my left who clubbed his musket, swung 
it round his head, and the next instant it was fireworks 
and black night with me. 

" The first thing I realised after I fell was that some one 
was standing over me, saying, ' Poor fellow ! he's done for ! ' 

"However, though I could not move a limb, I felt 
that I was not 'done for,' and soon I managed to crawl 
behind a low bit of wall, when I lay still till I could look 
about me. 

" I was half-blind with blood and felt as if every bone 
in my body was broken ... it was clear that the escalade 
had failed, and that there was very sharp fighting going 
on inside the walls." 

Lieutenant Bonus, owing to his being stunned, was not 
able to record what was the eff'ect of his plucky attempt 
to gain the wall ; but Colonel Malleson writes in his History : 
"The rampart they had to escalade was very high and 
the scaling-ladders were too short. Thanks, however, to 
the splendid gallantry of three officers of the Engineers, 
Dick, Meiklejohn, and Bonus, and of Fox of the Madras 
Sappers, they succeeded in gaining a footing there. Just 
then Brockman, from the left attack, made a timely charge 
on the flank and rear of the defenders. Their persistence 
immediately diminished, and the right attack made good 
its hold." 

These young officers led the way at the cost of life or 
limb : for the men seemed to hang back at first, not liking 
the look of the place with its awkward climb. Lieutenant 
Dick, on putting his foot on the step of another scaling- 
ladder, said to a brother-officer, " I never can be sufficiently 
obliged to Sir Hugh Rose : tell him how I have done 
my duty." 

He ran up the ladder, received several shots and fell 
down mortally wounded : such was the end of a chivalrous 
officer who had imperilled his[ career to save an Indian 
private. 

343 



SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI 

Meiklejohii, who had spent part of the night before in 
writing to his mother, feeling certain that he should be 
killed in the storm of the morrow, no sooner gained the top 
than he was dragged from the ladder by the Afghan 
mercenaries and hacked to pieces so as to be unrecognisable. 
Though the escalade had partially failed, yet it served to 
draw a body of the garrison away from the other escalade. 
Fortunately the assault was more successful on the left, and 
the general entered the breach, fought his way from street 
to street and from room to room of the palace. 

The next day, 4th April, the rest of the city was taken 
and occupied : in the evening the Rani sent for her horse 
to the fort ditch, and was let down from a window into 
the saddle, and so fled to Kalpi, having her little stepson 
in her lap. 

For seventeen days and nights our men had never taken 
off' their clothes nor unsaddled their horses ! 

Sir Hugh Rose wrote : " No recollection of the revolting 
murders perpetrated in that place could make our men 
forget that in an English soldier's eyes the women and 
children are always spared. So far from hurting them, the 
troops shared their rations with them."" 

The capture of Jhansi had cost us 343 killed and 
wounded, of whom 36 were officers. The rebels lost about 
5000 men. But Sir Hugh gave the enemy no rest: he 
stormed Lohari and Kunch and fought such a battle at 
Gulauli on the 22nd of May that the rebels dispersed, 
broken and dispirited. 

Thus in five months Sir Hugh Rose had traversed 
Central India, stormed many fortresses, won several 
victories, and re-established British authority in a most 
important province. 

"It was impossible to have done this better than Sir 
Hugh Rose did it. As a campaign his was faultless." 

It only remained to catch the de Wet of the Mutiny — 
Tantia Topee : but he for more than nine months eluded 
all the forces sent to intercept him : he was supreme in 

344 



THE AVENGER OF CAWNPUR 

fighting and running away : the only native who developed 
a genius for war. 

At length he was compelled to hide in the jungle and 
was betrayed by a rebel chief, Man Singh, at midnight 
on the 7th of April 1859. Tantia Topee was taken to 
Sipri, tried by court-martial and hanged on the 18th of 
April. 

Such was the end of this able guerilla leader : but we 
must not forget that this was the man who organised 
the massacre at Cawnpur, and gloated over the deaths of 
our women and children. Sir Hugh was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief first of Bombay, then of India, made 
Field Marshal and Baron Strathnairn. He died at Paris 
at the age of eighty-four and was buried at Christchurch 
Priory, Hants. 

Clyde and Strathnairn. Clarendon Press. 

Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny. Seeley, Service & Co. 



345 



Printed by 

Morrison & Gibb Limited, 

Edinburgh 



